Children of the Sun
by Glamdring804
Summary: Three Guardians. A strange transmission. A sun-scorched planet, subsumed by ancient aliens. Secrets and danger awaits. This story takes place during the Age of Triumph.
1. Chapter 1

"Solar Light is a power of both life and death. It is the warmth of the sun that gives us strength and nourishment. It is also the devouring fire that burns and consumes everything in its path. As a Guardian of the Solar, you are neither and both at once."

Linvana stood still on the rusty rooftop, eyes closed in concentration as she listened to the Warlock speak. She wore no armor, only a training leggings and an exercise bra, letting the sunlight warm her bare shoulders.

"Each element is part of the same whole," Elva continued, "A single wavelength of a greater force. To channel an element to its fullest potential, you must understand that your source is a bridge that allows the element to freely flow through you. A Void source is like a tear in reality. An Arc source is a conduit for the storm.

"We, on the other hand, we act as a lens. The Solar power shines through us and we give it focus. We provide shape and structure with our will. When you shape the Solar Light, you must clearly visualize what you wish to create. Otherwise, you release too much power, and you will burn everything around you. Do you understand?"

Linvana squeezed her eyes tighter. She remained motionless atop the abandoned structure. Images of her previous attempts flashed through her mind. Failures that ended in destruction. _Not this time_ , she resolved. She focused on the center point in her mind, the balance between fury and calm.

"I understand," Linvana said.

"Good," Elva replied. "Now form the circle."

Linvana thrust out her hand and called upon the Light. Warmth ignited in her chest and swelled to fill her body. Two tendrils of golden light formed around her hand and twisted into the outline of a handle. They flickered for moment, then snapped into the shape of a hammer with a pure, metallic note.

As she summoned the Hammer of Sol, she let the flames flow through the rest of her. They poured into the ground around her, igniting a burning sunspot. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead, not from the extreme heat, but from the intense concentration of controlling the raging flames. They wanted to snap away from her grasp, to be unleashed and allowed to burn freely across the metal roof.

"Ready?" Elva asked

Linvana nodded.

The bronze skinned Exo snapped into motion. She threw a pair of grenades at Linvana, one from each hand. Linvana raised her hammer. The Light of the sunspot reacted to her motion and formed a film to block the explosive globs of Light.

Elva was already on the move. She leapt over Linvana and ignited her Radiance as she landed. Linvana spun to face her as she threw a fresh salvo of grenades. Linvana's overshield flared as the grenades deflected and landed inside her sunspot. They exploded and sent spots across her vision.

Elva came at her fast. The Exo lashed out at the Titan. Linvana braced herself as a pulse of Solar flames slammed into her. The attack pushed her back and threw her off balance. She scrambled to correct her stance. Too late. Another strike burned through her overshield. Blistering pain flared all across her upper body.

She growled in frustration, and her own flames surged in response. She lowered her hammer and threw herself forward. As she charged Elva, she swung in a wide arc. Her blow landed with a satisfying crunch. The Warlock yelped and jumped back, cradling her shattered forearm.

Linvana prepared for another attack when her foot sank into the floor. Pain stabbed at her ankle. The entire section of the platform was glowing white hot, consumed by her flames. It sagged as the heat liquefied the metal. Too late, she realized had lost control in her anger.

She just had enough time to say "Crap," before the metal gave way and she fell to the ground hundreds of feet bellow, surrounded by a rain of molten metal.

* * *

Linvana gasped as icy sensation shot through her veins. Polaris, her Ghost, hovered overhead. He scanned her body to make sure everything was working properly and disappeared a moment later.

She rolled her shoulders to work the knots out and stood up. Polaris had brought her back on top of the abandoned wall, as instructed. The rusting fortification was one of several structures dotting the surrounding forest. The buildings were vestiges of the old City perimeter, before the wall proper was pulled back to its current position along the Tower. They were useless as defenses now, but they were perfect practice grounds for Guardians' rather destructive abilities.

Elva sat on a box a short distance away. The green overcoat of her robes sat folded on the ground beside her, and she was reading a thick book bound between metal covers. Her Ghost had already repaired her arm

"Well, you're definitely improving," Elva noted.

Linvana glanced skeptically at the hole she had melted through the roof of the buildings, which was still smoldering in some places. A line of similar punctures dotted the rest of the roof.

"I'm not quite sure that's what improvement looks like," she said dryly.

Elva shook her head. "You don't give yourself enough credit. It takes years to master an element, and you've only held your Solar source for less than two. According to this-" She held up the book "-summoning an overshield is a skill only the most experienced Sunbreakers could manage. They were given the title of Firekeeper. The rank took decades of training to obtain. The fact that you're even attempting it so soon is nothing short of incredible."

"Huh," Linvana said, unimpressed. She and Elva had been training for nearly a month now, but it still _felt_ like they had made barely any progress. The sense of stagnation was starting to wear at her nerves.

Elva's Ghost, appeared next to the Warlock. "Ikora is summoning you. She wants you in the Hall of Guardians."

Elva snapped the book shut and stood up. "Well, I guess she wants her book back. Borrowing from her personal library tends to make her pretty impatient."

"That's fine, I need a break anyway. We can pick it back up tomorrow," Linvana said. One could only fall through a roof so many times in a row.

Polaris appeared beside her. "Actually, Zavala is requesting you back in the Tower as well," he added.

"Both of us?" Linvana said, "They must have an assignment then." She grabbed her own jacket from beside Elva's crate and threw it on.

The two Guardians set off along the wall, back towards the City.

"Thanks for helping me with this," Linvana said as they walked, "I know you're eager to get back to Venus, but…with all records of the Sunbreakers expunged, I thought I would have to figure this out on my own."

Elva chuckled. "My research can wait I suppose. The Vex aren't going anywhere. When I think about it, I should be the one thanking you."

"Really? What for?" Linvana asked.

"Well, I couldn't believe it when I heard you had become a Sunbreaker. Picking up a second element is something only the Guardians of legend do. Wei Ning, Toland. The fact that the leader of my own fireteam did it is nothing short of amazing. To be honest, I'm a little bit jealous."

"Maybe you should try picking up a new element then," Linvana replied, "Anything is possible with the Light if you try hard enough. If you listen to Saladin, that is."

"There's that Titan mentality," Elva said, "Just keep pushing it until it works. Picking up a second element isn't as simple as waking up and deciding I'm going to be a Voidwalker. I need to generate a connection to the Void, like the Solar source you found in the Sunbreakers' shrine."

"Huh," Linvana grunted. Elva seemed to think that was the end of the subject, so she let the conversation lapse. They continued the walk back to the wall in silence.

"So, today is Wednesday, right?" Elva asked as they approached the Tower proper.

"Um, yeah," Linvana said.

"Which means yesterday was Tuesday."

"What about it?"

"Well, if I recall correctly, Tuesday is date night for you and Telysa. And yet, when I passed the firing range yesterday evening, you were practicing there alone."

Linvana bit her lip. "Well, I guess we just missed it," she said. _Please let it drop_ , she prayed.

"Lin, in the two and a half years you and Telysa have been dating, the only time you missed a date is the week Oryx showed up."

 _Damnit_.

"Rain or shine," Elva continued, "you've spent every Tuesday together, even if that meant trudging through the Venusian swamps to claim a bounty on a Fallen captain. Every week, without fail, until yesterday. Is something going on with you two?"

The Titan sighed. She had hoped to avoid this, to have more time to think things through. "Kind of," she said, "It's…complicated."

"I'm no expert on relationships, but 'it's complicated' isn't usually a good thing, right?" Elva asked.

Linvana shook her head.

"Did you want to talk about it?"

Elva paused at the entrance to the main Tower. She opened the door and let Linvana enter. They began moving towards the lifts.

Linvana mulled as they walked. Elva was her friend, so she'd have to tell her eventually. She wanted time to sort through her feelings on her own but…the secret was out now. Might as well get it over with.

"Telysa asked me to move in with her," Linvana blurted, "and I didn't say yes."

"…Oh," Elva said.

"I panicked. She asked me out of the blue yesterday, and I just wasn't prepared. I said I would think about it. And now…" Linvana shrugged.

"Have you tried talking to her?"

Linvana lowered her eyes. "No. I haven't."

"Why not?"

"Well…" Linvana sighed. "Honestly, I don't think I can talk to her right now. Telysa…she's the woman I love, and when she gave me the chance to commit to her, I didn't take it. What does that mean for me? For us? What if talking just makes things worse"

"That's true…but maybe you're overthinking it? I mean, dreg's advocate here, if there's really something going between you two, you need to sort it out sooner rather than later. It wouldn't be a good idea to start an argument while our team is on a mission."

Linvana bit her lip and fell silent. They reached the lifts and began ascending to the top of the Tower.

"I'm scared," Linvana said quietly, "I've killed Archons and Kells, faced down armies of Cabal, fought my way through a Vex netherworld. Hell, I've killed _two_ Hive gods. But as many monsters I've put down, I've come close to dying myself twice over. Going out there, fighting, it's dangerous. Any mission could be my last. I can't help but think that I'll lose Telysa, or worse, she'll lose me. And that idea absolutely scares the hell out of me."

Elva glanced at the Titan. "It sounds to me like you already know what the problem is."

Linvana shook her head. "I guess I do. I just don't know the answer."

The lift came to a stop and deposited them in the Tower plaza. The midday sun shone bright overhead, and the banners flapped in the breeze. The two Guardians crossed the space and descended the stairs in the middle.

They passed the alcove at the bottom of the stairs, which remained strangely empty. As unsettling as Eris Morn had been, Linvana had grown used to her presence in the Tower. She couldn't help but wonder what would motivate Crota's Bane to leave the City without any warning at all.

Shaxx was gone from his post as well, and when they entered the hall of Guardians, only two of the Vanguard stood near their table. Cayde's usual spot was empty. Was something happening to the Tower staff?

"Ah, Captain, Scribe," Zavala said as they approached the table.

"Commander," Linvana acknowledged, "Where is everyone? I heard about Eris, but did we lose Cayde and Shaxx too?"

"Unfortunately not," Ikora replied, "The two of them had some sort of bet earlier, and Cayde won. Apparently, Shaxx's payment involves doing whatever Cayde wants him too for a day."

It suddenly clicked for Linvana. "Let me guess," she said, "Cayde dragged Shaxx down to the fields to supervise the monthly dodge ball tournament. Yeah, I fell for that once. Never again."

"Crucible antics aside," Zavala interjected, "There is a reason both of you are here. We received an unusual transmission a short time ago."

"You will both want to hear it, especially you Elva," Ikora added. She motioned for her Ghost to begin.

The message began with a sharp burst of static. A few garbled words followed, and then a single phrase, spoken by a sharp voice: "...the incendiary revision…" The voice dissolved into static. Linvana caught a few more syllables, and then the transmission ended.

Beside Linvana, Elva stiffened. "I recognize that voice - it's Praedyth."

"That would appear to be the case," Ikora said, "It bears the same Vanguard signature embedded in the message we retrieved last year from the Vault of Glass."

"The last time the Vex used Praedyth's voice," Elva said, "they lured me into the Vault to destroy a Taken blight…Are they trying to get our attention again?"

"That's a question we would very much like to answer," Ikora replied, "This message is much more distorted. I suspect circumstances might be different this time."

"Hold on a minute," Linvana said, confused, "I remember you telling me about the Vault. Didn't you find Praedyth's body at the bottom?"

"Yes and no," Elva replied, "I found the remains of the Guardian that we _think_ is Praedyth, but when I went deeper into the Vault, his voice spoke directly to me. The Vex control reality entirely within the Vault…I suspect that it's wholly possible for Praedyth to be both dead and trapped within their networks at the same time."

"So what's our plan then? Send a team in to the Vault again and see what the problem is? Try to rescue Praedyth while we're at it?" Linvana asked.

"Actually," Zavala interjected, "This transmission did not originate from Venus. It came from Mercury. Specifically, it appears to have come from the former location of the Sunbreakers' Forge."

"The Sunbreakers' Forge," Linvana said, "You mean the shrine I tracked them do during the Taken War? The shrine where they gave me my Solar powers?"

"One and the same," Zavala confirmed.

"If something is powerful enough to threaten the Vex, it is a danger to us all," Ikora continued, "And if something else is amiss, it is imperative we monitor the situation closely. Elva, the Vex are your specialty, and has Praedyth reached out to you before. You are the most qualified Guardian we have to evaluate the situation. "

"The Vex consumed Mercury during the collapse," Zavala added, "They've controlled the planet for centuries, and we have neglected it for far too long. Captain Linvana, you're already acquainted with that region of Mercury. I want you to accompany Elva to the Forge."

Linvana nodded. "Yes sir. We'll leave as soon as we're ready."

"One more thing," Zavala added, "You'll be entering enemy territory with no established patrol network and no nearby Crucible perimeters. I strongly encourage you to bring a third Guardian."

"I agree," Linvana said, "A few other members of our team are in town."

Elva smiled. "In fact, I know just the person."

* * *

They found Dellander in the Tower practice range. There was nobody else there, a somewhat unusual sight. Even more unusual was the Gunslinger himself, slumped in a corner, nursing a broken nose.

The Hunter looked up as they approached, a line of blood dribbled across his mouth and down this scruffy chin.

Elva groaned. "For the love of the Light. You asked Ulaina out on a date again, didn't you?"

"What?! No, give me some credit Elva," Dellander exclaimed, "She said no the first time I asked her, and the second time too. She clearly ain't interested in me, and I'm not stupid to keep chasing someone who already turned me down. ."

"So who were you flirting with then?" Linvana pressed, crossing her arms.

Dellander shook his head. "Come on, why are you assuming a girl did this to me? It could've been the kick from my rifle, for all you know."

"Okay then," Linvana said, "How did you break your nose?"

"Well, I, uh…might have run into Lakshmi and asked ask her how she was."

Elva cradled her face in her hand. "Lakshmi? Are you insane? You do _not_ ask the leader of the Future War Cult out on a date."

"I didn't!" Dellander insisted, "I was just trying to be polite. Don't even like that tin-headed robot anyways."

"You do realize I'm also a tin-headed robot," Elva noted.

"Yeah, but you're not crazy and spouting off nonsense about endless war and inevitable doom."

Beside Elva, Linvana sighed. "Your disagreement wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you rejected Lakshmi's invitation to the FWC and insulted her very loudly in front of a hundred people last week, would it?"

Dellander stared philosophically at the ceiling for a moment. "Maybe. Silla, go ahead and patch it up."

His Ghost appeared next to him and bathed his face in Light. The swelling around his nose subsided, and red color drained away. The Hunter tapped the end of his nose with his finger.

"How does it look?" he asked, "Is it crooked? I figure it will make me look more ruggedly handsome."

Elva shook her head. "You're insane."

"So..." Dellander stood up, ignoring Elva. "Although I'd like to think you came down here to sympathize with me, there must be a real reason you're looking for me."

"You've been moping around the Tower for the last few weeks," Linvana said, "We have a mission, and we figured you could tag along, stretch your legs." She motioned for Elva to explain.

"Earlier today, we received a transmission from Praedyth. We think he's reaching out to us."

"Praedyth. Isn't that the guy who got lost in the Vault of Glass?"

"He was one of them," Linvana corrected.

"We're going deep into Vex territory on Mercury," Elva continued, "We need a third Guardian. You entered the Black Garden with Brontis and Ulaina. Your Ghost cracked the manifold encryption protecting the Heart. That's supposed to be impossible."

"I didn't actually crack it," his Ghost said, "I just tricked it into thinking we were Gatelords. That's far from the same thing."

"That doesn't make it any less impressive. I've spent my entire life studying the Vex and their technology. Your Ghost knows her way around their networks, and, as you insist on bragging, you're the best shot on our team."

Dellander stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Think about it," Linvana prompted, "We're going to _Mercury_. That planet has barely been practically untouched since the Golden Age. Think of what could be hidden out there in the sands and the ruins."

"There could be something pretty valuable…" he said, "Okay then! I'll do it. You need a Hunter to get anything done around here anyways. When do we leave?"


	2. Chapter 2

Mercury was a blasted little planet.

Dellander watched as it came into focus on the screen. The darkened night side was crisscrossed with a grid of blue-white lines. What he could see of the dayside was molted brown and gray, a broken mush of craters and whatever the hell the Vex had built there.

"The location we're traveling to is right in the middle of the twilight region," Linvana's Ghost said over the coms. "There was a good deal of electrical interference there last time, but it's diminished since then. We'll still have to set down a few miles out though."

"Lovely," Dellander muttered. He checked his pistol and his long-rifle, and made sure his armor was all tight and sealed. Temperatures in the sun would be hot enough to burn skin on contact, something he learned after a particularly painful death in the Crucible. He slipped his helmet on and waited for transmat.

The three ships dove in formation. They tore through the thin air and leveled out. Dellander glimpsed pillars of metal and stone illuminated by the half-light. A moment later, the ship was gone, and he landed in a bank of pale sand, his dark yellow cloak billowing around him.

Linvana appeared next to him. Her gold and red armor glinted in the sun. Elva materialized a moment later, yellow and olive green coat brushing the sand as she sank up to her mid-calf.

"Which way?" Dellander asked. They were standing on the side of a low mountain. The sand slope was dotted with arrangements of Vex stone and metal. A wide structure that looked something like a fortress crowned the distant peak.

"Up the mountain," Linvana said, "The transmission came from the Forge at the very top. No vehicle link for sparrows, so we'll have to walk."

The Titan set off, her black auto-rifle and serrated sword slung across her back. Dellander and Elva followed.

A constant breeze blew across the mountain. It picked up the sand and scattered it against the Guardians. Dellander hated Mercury just for that reason. Cleaning the sand out of his armor took forever. He groaned. This was going to ruin the dark blue paint job Miss Levante just put on it.

They picked their way up the slope, winding between twisted pillars of stone, metal, and glass. They rounded a final corner, and emerged onto a broad field in front of the fortress. Linvana had mentioned that the place was a mirrored version of the Burning Shrine. He definitely saw the resemblance. It was mostly the same, except for the middle pillar being replaced with a circular platform.

Linvana and Elva released their Ghosts and had them start sweeping the area. Dellander shrugged and let Silla out.

"Any idea what we're looking for?" he asked?

"The transmission originated from here," Elva replied, "See if you can find anything that has signs of recent activity."

Dellander nodded to Silla. The little angular ball flew off and started scanning whatever bits of exposed metal she could find.

"So this is it?" Elva asked, "This was the Sunbreaker's Forge?"

Linvana nodded.

"Where did you find the Solar source?"

Linvana pointed at the round platform. "Up there, in the center."

Elva crossed to the platform and began inspecting it. "Fascinating. The Sunbreakers modified the workings of this site to collect and concentrate Solar energy. They must have completely rewired the Vex substructure…what else have they done?"

She continued exploring the front of the structure, muttering to herself. "The things they could teach us, about the Light, about the Vex. Maybe they could even lead us to Osiris…"

Dellander leaned against a stone block and crossed his arms. "Warlocks. Always stopping to smell the roses."

"And Hunters never give credit where its due," Linvana said. She picked up a handful of sand and let the grains run through her fingers. "You should try reading the Praxic Folios. They've discovered some fascinating things about the Light. You wouldn't believe the different ways it can be harnessed as a weapon."

"Praxic Folios…wait, you mean you actually read those giant books?"

"Of course? What else would I do with them?"

"Well, I kinda figured they were for weight training or something. Something more…Titan-ish."

Linvana chuckled. "Yes Dellander, Titans know how read. Despite what Brontis would have you believe, there's a lot more to us than just 'punch everything.'"

"Well in that case, I apologize. Just don't hit me with a book next time I say something stupid." Dellander peeled away from the pillar and strolled across the space. He stood and looked across the stacks of stone and metal. All this Vex junk looked so random. Elva insisted there a pattern to it. Did it even matter?

He frowned as his foot clomped against something solid. He brushed sand away with his boot. Underneath was a sheet of glass, warped and discolored. Like the slope had been melted at one point, and then the wind buried it with more sand. _What the hell happened here?_

"I found something," Elva's Ghost said through their earpieces. A marker appeared on his helmet visor. He followed it to the far right opening. All three Ghosts were huddled around a clump of metal cubes sitting in a cradle of circular ribs.

"The Sunbreakers made extensive modifications to the Vex's architecture here," Linvana's Ghost said as the other two Guardians arrived. "They shut everything down after our visit, and as far as I can tell, they haven't come back."

"This cluster was recently activated though," Elva's Ghost continued, "It wasn't the Sunbreakers though. The power surge originated _deep_ within the structure, well beneath the Sunbreakers' intrusion. This cluster connects to a network node up at the top. I think something, or someone, accessed this site remotely."

"Can you locate the point of origin?" Elva asked.

"I can," her Ghost replied, "but we'll need to get closer to the node."

"Up we go," Linvana said. She took three steps back and threw herself up the wall on a cushion of Light. The jump carried her half way. She caught hold of a jutting lip. Another jump got her on top of the buttress. Elva followed, her own Light carrying her gently up the side, like a feather blown on the wind. She landed on the same ledge Linvana used and continued to the top.

Dellander gave himself a running start and leapt into the air. At the top of his arc, he pushed down with a pulse of Light, and then again, bounding up a set of invisible stairs. He came up a few feet short and grabbed the edge with his hands. Linvana took hold of his arm and pulled him up.

"I was doing just fine," he insisted, shaking out his arms.

Linvana shook her head and turned to the center of the roof. The top of the structure was mostly bare stone, except for a few stacks of blocks supporting a metal ring. Elva was already investigating.

"The network node is tied to this transfer gate," she said, "Praedyth's message was sent from the other end."

"Can you get it open?" Linvana asked.

As soon as she spoke, one of the pillars lit up on the slope behind them. A beam of white light shot from the side and struck the exposed metal of the gate. The light seeped through the machinery and twisted into a glowing lattice.

"It just opened itself," Elva observed, "I think Praedyth wants us to see what's on the other side." She stepped towards the gate.

"Hold up!" Linvana ordered, grabbing Elva's shoulder. "Are you crazy? That gate could go anywhere - or anywhen."

"Exactly," Elva said, "If this is where Praedyth sent his message, then he could be on the other side."

"Silla," Dellander said before they could continue arguing, "Can you tell where the gate leads?"

His Ghost appeared and scanned the gate. "It doesn't appear to lead to a different time, if that's what you're worried about. I think it goes to somewhere else on Mercury, in the middle of the day side."

Linvana released Elva and nodded.

"Go ahead," the Titan said.

Elva and Linvana stepped into the vortex and vanished.

Dellander sighed. Hunters were supposed to be the reckless ones. He had spent years building up his reputation as a cocky daredevil, and yet, the Warlock and the Titan just stepped through a gate made by creepy evil automatons. He hadn't signed up to be the adult on the mission.

He sighed and stepped through.

* * *

Sand.

A vast, endlessly flat sea of the stuff stretched to the horizon in every direction. It was bone white, bleached of all color by the searing light. The glare was obnoxiously bright, even through the filters of her visor. The sun burned straight overhead, impossibly large and bloated. She cast no shadow.

The portal was the only feature visible in the vast expanse. It listed to the side, fixed to a giant block of stone half buried in the sand. There was no power in the metal circle, and it looked like it had been dark for ages. The air was hot and stagnant. Silent. Dead.

Elva approached the gate and let out Erytheia. She scanned the metal. "Nothing," she said, "I'm surprised it even managed to get us here."

She cursed and kicked the gate. The sound was swallowed by the stillness. "So what now? Why would Praedyth want to bring us…here?" Her voice sounded strange. Too loud, too present in the quiet. She could almost hear phantom echoes of her voice returning to her, whispering just beyond her senses.

"Where is here anyways?" Dellander asked aloud. He looked around, as if he were surprised he had actually spoke.

His Ghost appeared at his shoulder. "I…I don't know. I _think_ we're still on Mercury, but it's hard to tell. There's something very strange going on around us. Some kind of Vex manipulation. It's almost like the Black Garden"

"And the Vault of Glass," Erytheia added, "There's fluctuations in the local vacuum energy, just like inside the Vault. I think we're in a Vex pocket reality."

"Wonderful," Linvana muttered, "What does this have to do with Praedyth?"

"Well," Elva replied, "If this is a pocket reality, like the Vault, then there's a fair probability they're connected. Maybe Venus was too well protected, but he found a way to contact us through Mercury."

"What if it's not him though," Linvana said, "What if the Vex are just using his voice, and they are trying to trap us as well. We need to get out of here."

"We're not going back through the gate," Elva said, "The connection was severed."

"Any other ideas?" Linvana fidgeted. The Titan was visibly nervous.

"I don't know. Pick a direction and start walking I guess?"

"There's nothing here. Where would we even go?"

"There," Dellander said. He raised his arm and pointed. Elva followed it out to the horizon, where a huge Vex monolith reared, nearly indistinguishable from the white sky around it. It stretched up and up and up, vanishing into the pervading pale haze. Lazy tendrils of electricity flashed intermittently across the surface.

"Okay," Elva said, "I know that wasn't there when we got here."

"I…I think you're right," Linvana said. She shook her head, like she was trying to clear her eyes.

"I don't like the look of that thing," Dellander said.

Elva stared at it, the only shape to give substance to the formless sea. An anchor to reality. A whisper calling too her.

"I agree," she said, "But we don't really have a choice."

With that, she set out across the white ocean.

* * *

Elva quickly lost track of time as they walked.

The gate shrank to a tiny speck behind them, then vanished altogether. The blinding sun sat unchanging above them. The distant monolith was impossibly far away. How could they ever reach it?

Everything was white. White sun. White sky. White sand. White whispers in the back of her mind.

Mercury had once been a garden, a jewel of a world held close to the Sun's bosom. The Vex had no care for the life, the beauty. They tore down what the Traveler made, replaced forests with machines, oceans with sand. The Vex geometries spoke of patterns amidst the chaos, balance and form in the unknown. Reality, fashioned to their will, with no regard for what came before.

She could almost see it. Lush, thick jungles teaming with life. A misty waterfall cascading down a distant cliff, a rainbow draped over it like a mantel. Everything so rich and vibrant in the fantastically bright sunlight. It was so real, so solid, she could just reach out and…

Elva shook her head. The vision of the jungle vanished, and the endless sand returned. It wasn't real. It couldn't be real. It was gone, forever lost in time. Something was terribly wrong here. The Vex, they made reality fray and split apart. She knew that. She studied them, delved deep into their ruins and traced their vast networks through eternity. For the briefest of moments, she held the impression they were slipping on the surface of…something.

She looked over at Dellander. He walked with his head down, shaking his helmet like he had something stuck in his ears. Linvana strode ahead, footsteps uneven, hand shaking at her side. They were feeling it too, sliding further away, towards the whispers and silence…

"Say something," Elva whispered. The deafening sound rang out like a booming explosion in the absolute silence.

Dellander slowly looked at her as he walked, visibly confused.

"Say something, anything," she continued, "This place is wrong, all wrong. I need to hear your voices. I need to know you're still real."

The Hunter shook his head and turned away.

Elva panicked. Why did she lead them here? Why did she listen to the whispers and step through the portal. Was this a trap all along?

"I'll tell you a story."

Her eyes snapped up. The voice came from Linvana. She still walked in front of them, gaze fixed on the distant tower.

"You've heard it before," the Titan continued, "Even been there for parts of it, but I'll say it anyway.

"I met Telysa on a cold little asteroid at the edge of the Reef. We were both hunting the same Fallen pirate, only, neither of us knew it at the time. I was still young then, only a few months old, so I was stupid and naive enough to think I could take out a baron on my own. And Telysa, well, she's a hunter, so she think's she can do anything anyways.

"So I fought my way through a small army of Fallen, and she was right there on the other side, trying to sneak past and get to baron first. She was pissed when she saw me, thought I was going to steal all the credit and loot. I talked her down, and we went and found the baron. The only catch was, there were two of them. Mates, siblings, I don't know what they were, but they were vicious.

"We fought. I managed to kill one of them, but the other got the upper hand on Telysa. He lured her Ghost out and was about to kill it. I got there just in time and took its head off.

"When the smoke cleared, I gave her an invitation to join Dawnstar, which wasn't even a real fireteam back then. She refused at first, but we kept running into each other on missions. We ended up fighting our way through a Hive sanctum on the Moon together, when I got caught in a wizard's poison. I still remember how the thing cackled as I laid there helpless, my Light and strength draining away. I was dying, and it knew it.

"That's when Telysa showed up. We had gotten separated in the tunnels, but there she was, flying through the air, bits of Hive guts splattered across her vest. She took the bayonet of her gun and rammed it right through the wizard's face. Practically cut the thing's head in half. They hit the ground, and the wizard's body and sorcery burned away.

"Telysa helped to my feet, said we were even now, and that meant now she could join the team. We went on our first date a week later."

Linvana stopped for a moment, her posture slack and deflated. "And that, is how I met the love of my life."

The Titan resumed walking. Her stride was measured and firm now.

"Thank you," Elva said. The silence returned, but it felt more solid, more real. Even the whispers retreated.

A breeze blew across the sand, the first she had felt since they stepped through the gate. She released a sigh of relief. They were passing through…whatever that place was. She watched as the pale grains danced along the ground.

And walked right into the wall.

She stumbled back and fell. She sprawled in the sand as her vision swam and slowly came back into focus. The sun darkened as Dellander leaned over her and proffered his hand. She accepted it.

The block she had walked into was made of rust colored glass, and was one of dozens scattered around them. A short distance ahead, a spire of dark metal and glass rose from the sand. It was all Vex, but with the usual stone replaced with orange glass.

"Where did these come from?" Elva asked, looking around. "Did either of you notice this before?"

"No," Dellander said.

"Look," Linvana said. She was facing the other way, staring past the glass spire. Beyond the pillar, the ground dropped away to a deep rift valley. A narrow causeway cut across the valley, directly underneath the beam emitted by the spire. The causeway stretched all the way up to the base of the monolith, which now loomed above them. It stretched into the sky, the top layers vanishing in the white haze.

"How did we get here so fast?" Dellander asked, "We've only been walking for a few minutes."

"What do you mean?" Linvana said, "We've been walking for days."

"I think you're both right," Elva said, "It took us so long to arrive because we've been here all along."

"That makes no sense," Dellander said.

"Of course it doesn't, because it doesn't matter." The whispers said so.

"This must be where the transmission came from," Linvana said, "Whatever sent it is waiting inside."

Elva smiled. They were in the right place. She knew it. "Let's go see what they want."

* * *

They slid back into the real world as they crossed the causeway. The sun shrank and dimmed, and the sky faded to the usual black of Mercury's rarefied atmosphere. The stiff wind blew through the valley beneath them, which was littered with smaller Vex constructs.

As they stepped off the causeway and entered the monolith propper, she realized the entire thing was made of glass. She had spent the majority of her life studying the Vex and their strange structures, but this was unlike anything she had seen before. The glass was transparent, with a dusty beige tint to it. The complex metal patterns that were usually buried within the stone were visible for all to see. White filaments of non-baryonic matter threaded the cavities and spaces. Their glow diffused through the glass, filling the interior with thin gray light.

 _What is this place?_ Elva wondered. And why did Praedyth lead them through that bizarre sand to bring them here? And why was she even so sure that it was Praedyth? She had heard his voice, but he was a prisoner of the Vex. They could have forced him to send the transmission.

And yet, the whispers told her she was on the right path.

They passed further into the building, each chamber larger than the last. The walls stretched upwards for thousands of feet. The ceiling was lost in the searing haze. Massive discharges of Arc lightning would occasionally leap form one side to the other. They made no noise.

"So any idea what we're looking for?" Linvana asked, her voice echoing off the polished walls.

"Not exactly," Elva replied, "Look for something out of place. Something a Guardian might carry, like the weapons we found in the Vault of Glass. "

"Something out of place," Dellander said, "We're exploring a crystal tower made by alien automatons from the future, and we're supposed to look for 'something out of place.' Got it."

Elva shot him a glare and continued walking. They continued from hall to hall. She started to think she was going crazy again. Every room started looked the same. The glass floors made it feel like she was floating at times. And the whispers filled the air, drawing her deeper.

"Just how big is this thing?" she wondered aloud, "It makes the Ishtar Citadel look like a garden shed."

"It could take days to explore the whole thing," Linvana observed. She sounded hesitant.

They passed through a chamber with a stack of floating metal discs stretched between the walls. Another hall had a grid of filaments set in the floor.

Several hours later, they turned a corner and finally reached their destination.

The chamber itself was smaller than the previous ones, and square in shape. Sunlight shone through a row of notches in the back wall, filling the space with a warm glow. This chamber was adorned with a single inactive gate in the center. The only entrance was the one they had came through.

"Another portal?" Linvana asked, "I'm starting to think this is all a wild goose chase."

The gate burst to life as they approached. Sparks popped across the metal and into the glass ground.

"Someone knows we're coming," Elva said. _Of course we know you're coming,_ the whispers said, now clear and distinct. They came from the portal. _We've been waiting for you your entire life._

"I don't trust these portals anymore," Linvana said, "not after that other one left us in…Traveler knows what that place was. Polaris, see if you can map out where it goes. The last one shut off after we went through. I don't want to end up stranded half way across the universe."

 _Why have you come here?_ the whispers accused, _You were cast out of the pattern by your own touch._

A single voice rose above the rest.

 _Don't listen to them. I know you're worried, and rightfully so._

Elva closed her eyes and concentrated on the voice. It was strangely familiar, but she couldn't place it.

"Whatever you do, do not step through that portal," Linvana's Ghost was saying, "It is all over the place. It loops back to various parts of the monolith in spatial dimensions, but I think…the other end is drifting freely through time!"

 _There is great danger here, danger they wish to keep hidden. I can also offer you answers, and the power that comes with them. Incredible power._

"That's it," Linvana said, "This mission is scrubbed. Whatever's going on here, we aren't equipped for it. If there's anything to be found, we'll come back a full fireteam. Polaris, see if you can lock us for transmat."

Lock for transmat? Wasn't she listening? The voice…

Only then did it occur to her that the others didn't hear the whispers.

 _I've seen their future, and I've seen their past. I've glimpsed their pattern, their final shape. You can stop them, but I need to show you._

Elva stepped forward, cocking her head, listening.

"Elva, what are you doing?" Linvana asked.

 _I can guide you. I just need you to step through._

"Elva, stand back _now._ That's an order."

 _I just need you to step through._

Praedyth. The voice was Praedyth, and he was waiting on the other side.

Elva smiled and walked into the light.

* * *

"No!" Linvana shouted. The Titan lunged for the Warlock, but she was already gone. Linvana hesitated for only a moment, and threw herself into the vortex after her.

That left Dellander, for the second time that day, alone in front of a Vex gate, with his team on the other side.

"So uh, what just happened?" Silla asked.

"I'm fairly certain my two friends just went insane," Dellander replied. He shuffled his feet and hooked his thumbs through his belt. What had Lin's Ghost just said? The other end was sliding through time? What the hell did that even mean? Was he supposed to just wait here and hope they came back through?

"What do we do now?" Silla asked. She fidgeted nervously over his shoulder.

"The only thing we can do," Dellander replied.

He stepped through the portal.


	3. Chapter 3

Colors bent. Up became down. His insides twisted and pulled apart and righted themselves. Slowly, agonizingly, he congealed back together.

Dellander stumbled out of the portal and immediately ripped his helmet off. He fell to his knees and threw up.

He waited until the nausea subsided and pulled his water flask from his belt. He rinsed the foul taste out of his mouth and carefully drank a few sips. Focus on breathing, nothing else. After a short while, he felt recovered enough to stand. He replaced the cap on the flask and slowly climbed to his feet, grabbing the wall for support.

A clump of crimson vegetation ripped away in his hand.

"What the hell?" he muttered. He looked around and quickly realized he was a long, long way from the sun-blasted little planet he had just left.

Everything was covered with vivid red plant life. Brown vines draped the sides of the gate he had just stepped through. The ledge he stood on overlooked a lush jungle valley. Shimmering waterfalls lazily drifted down distant cliffs. Some kind of bird called out in the scarlet canopy below. It was met by a chorus of answers. He could just make out some scattered Vex spires among the trees. The sun shone bright overhead. And the temperature…It was hot and sticky, but nothing like the scorching heat of the Mercury sands. He'd had his helmet off for several minutes, and his skin wasn't even blistered.

"Where the hell are we?" he whispered.

Silla appeared at his side. "I think I know what happened, but you won't like it if I'm right."

"What do you mean?" Dellander asked.

"Well, the angular width of the sun is larger than it would be on Earth, and even Venus. In fact, it's just about how big it would be on Mercury without the Vex interference. And the red foliage matches Golden Age records of Mercury."

Cold realization settled like a brick in Dellander's stomach. "So you're saying…"

"We're still on Mercury alright, but several hundred years in the past, during the height of the Golden Age. I won't one hundred percent be sure until night falls and I can analyze the relative positions of stars, but don't get your hopes up."

"Crap," Dellander muttered. He turned around and kicked the inert gate. The frame of silver-gold metal sat there, cold and dead. "Let me guess, we're not going back through there are we?"

Silla scanned the portal. "Not a chance. At this point in the past, this gate isn't even connected to the greater Vex networks. Which makes no sense, because we came through it somehow…" She trailed off, visibly confused.

Dellander groaned and walked to the lip of the ledge. The lush valley stretched below, shimmering under the brilliant sun. How the hell did this happen? Yesterday, he was hanging around the Tower, waiting for a mission, and today, he was lost several centuries in the past.

"Did Elva and Linvana come through here?" he asked after a moment, "Can you get a read on their Ghosts.

"Let me look," Silla muttered. She chirped and spun around for several moments. "Nothing. No signs of anyone else within a five mile radius."

"Damnit," Dellander said, "We need to find them."

"That might not be possible," Silla said, "The portal was unstable, shifting through time. We went through it after they did. They probably ended up in a completely different point in time."

"Well that's just wonderful. Got any ideas on how to find them, or even just get back to the present?"

"If we want to get back, we're going to need to find a portal connected to the Vex networks. This structure is disconnected, but I'm picking up some strange radio emissions down in the valley. It could be something."

Dellander peered down the drop bellow the ledge, looking for a path to the bottom. "It's not like we have anything else to do."

Walking on Mercury of the past was like walking though an oven. The air was thick with moisture, so much that just jumping down the cliff left his face and neck covered with sweat. He slipped his helmet back on, grateful for the climate control.

Once he reached the bottom, he picked his way through the strange red forest, following the marker Silla put on his visor. The tall trees had thick trunks and broad canopies that blocked out most of the sunlight. That made the undergrowth thin and easy to navigate. The floor of the valley undulated in shallow ridges, often with bubbling streams between.

He passed clumps of Vex ruins as he walked. They were dark and inactive. There were no glowing filaments. None of the parts moved or blinked in or out of existence.

"Most of these ruins look partial, incomplete," Silla noted, "There's accounts of Vex ruins on Venus before the Collapse. Maybe this is the same thing. They're disconnected because they're waiting to be brought online."

"What does that mean to me?" he asked.

"It means it we're going to have a hard time finding anything that can take us to our proper time."

"Wonderful."

Dellander pushed his way through a clump of vines and emerged into a small clearing. Another set of Vex pillars filled the space, but two of them had a single glowing filament strung between the top.

"This is where the signal is coming form," Silla said, "I'll have a look." She flew up to the top of a structure. "That's interesting, this stream is oscillating back and forth thousands of times a second. It has a pattern to it, almost like old Morse code. It says-"

A static hiss split the air. Pops of lightning snapped across the clearing as dark clouds filled the air. Dellander cursed and dove behind cover as figures took shape in the mist.

"We have company!" Silla said as she flew back to his side.

"Ya think?" Dellander shouted. He reached for his pistol.

Dellander didn't remember much of his life before he became a Guardian, but he knew he had lived by the gun, and died by the gun. Other Guardians, they changed weapons constantly, picking up whatever fancy new rifle caught their eye. Dellander knew better. He knew that if you wanted to truly master a gun, you had to get to know it.

A few weeks after arriving in the City, he fought in his first Crucible match. It was a close contest, with both teams racking up near even scores. In the last seconds, he snatched up the spark and charged blindly across the arena. He managed to ram it into the other team's rift just as a hail of bullets ripped through his body. The idiotic move won the match, and as a reward, Shaxx gave him a new hand cannon called the Silvered Maverick.

It wasn't that good of a gun, but it was the first gun he had earned in his new life, so he kept it. When it broke, he fixed it. The cylinder and the hammer stuck, so he replaced them with brass colored parts from a different gun. The handle gave out while he was patrolling on Venus, so he carved a new one out of the nearest chunk of dark hardwood he could find. He fit the contours to his hand, making aiming so much smoother. The original body had a good balance to it, and after he had the barrel re-rifled, good range too. Over the years, the paint chipped away. He redecorated it eventually, covering up the black marks, making the barrel dark gray, and the rail for the sights dark red.

The result was a weapon that he knew inside and out. He knew its weight, its recoil, and its aim by heart. He felt a sense of intimacy, a unique camaraderie, as he twirled the pistol around his finger and let the grip settle in his hand. This wasn't just a weapon, it was an extension of his body.

His first shot hit the goblin before it even touched the ground. The bullet tore through the juicebox in the abdomen and sprayed white droplets across the clearing. The automaton sparked and crumpled.

He was on the move before it hit the ground. A pair of goblins stepped around a pillar to the right. Two more shots and they were dead. He spun around and blasted out the stomach of the Vex that tried to sneak behind him. A goblin at the edge of the clearing raised its weapon. Dellander dodged the spray of fire bolts and dropped it.

Two goblins remained. He threw a grenade to the side. The explosion distracted them long enough for him to blast them both dead.

And just like that, the clearing was still again. Seven dead Vex, and a single bullet left in his gun.

Dellander released his breath and reloaded. He slid a fresh tube of ammo into the cylinder and snapped it shut with a flick of his wrist.

"Well then," Silla said, "I guess I stepped on some toes when I accessed the message."

He waited for more Vex to appear. None came.

Dellander kicked one of the fallen goblins with his boot. It looked different from the ones on Venus and Mars. The fan on its head was narrower, and the armor was dark red, with what looked like black glass piping on the edges. Elva would probably find that incredibly interesting. She loved discovering new things about the Vex.

Elva…If he was lost centuries in the past, then where was she? Was Linvana with her, or was she on her own too? This was supposed to be a simple scouting mission. How had it gone to hell so fast?

He holstered his gun and walked back to the glowing part of the ruins. "You said there was a message?

"I did," Silla replied, "If I decrypt it using Morse code, it turns into a string of letters. It says…oh my."

"What does it say?"

"'If you received this message, that means my plan worked. I don't have a lot of time to explain, so I'll keep it short. You're going to need to be the bait. The axis mind is protected in the Fractal Core. Draw it out, and run like the wind. Signed, Praedyth.'"

"Praedyth," Dellander muttered.

"I'll start searching for this 'Fractal Core,'" Silla said.

"Don't bother. Whatever that damn Warlock wants, I'm not doing it. He can wait until I find my friends."

"Are you sure?" Silla asked, "It sounded like he somehow intended us to be here. He could have a plan to get us out."

"Yeah, and he also said we're supposed to be some kind of bait," Dellander spat, "I sure as hell ain't going to start trusting him now. If these ruins have power, then that means there might be a gate around here that takes us home. We'll find our own way out."

"You're the boss," Silla said.

The sun slowly slid towards the horizon. The Mercury of his time was locked with the sun, always facing the same way. Apparently though, when the Traveler had transformed the world, it gave it a normal night and day. Now, as the sun sank past the distant cliffs, it only served as a reminder of how utterly screwed Dellander was.

They passed more Vex constructs as the light bled from the sky. None of them were active. It very quickly got too dark to see.

Dellander yawned and leaned against a tree. He wasn't sure how long they had spent in that cursed desert, but he felt like he had been awake for days. His thoughts were sluggish and his body was tired.

"Welp," Silla said, "We're definitely in the past. Judging by the stars' positions, we're about five hundred years before our own present time."

"Sure," Dellander said, "Just wonderful." He started climbing the tree, pulling himself from one branch to the other. He found a crux in the upper canopy and prepared to settle down for the night.

"You do realize," Silla continued after a moment, "even if we find an active transfer gate, there's no guarantee it will lead back to our present."

"Couldn't you make it connect back to our present?"

Silla laughed. "Uh, no. Actively modifying Vex networks is something only the Sunbreakers have accomplished. Elva's Ghost has spent years working with Vex tech. She can only get past the outer layers of their encryption. I _might_ be able to manipulate it with a Gatelord's eye, like we did in the Garden, but I don't see any Gatelords around."

"We'll figure something out," Dellander said. He bundled up his cloak behind his had as a pillow. Within moments, he was asleep.

The night passed without trouble. Silla woke him at first light. He ate the quick breakfast Silla synthesized for him and set off. They followed the creek towards the valley mouth.

More Vex ruins, all of them dead. No signs of life, Vex or otherwise.

The sun was almost straight overhead when he stumbled into a Vex city.

These ruins were different. They looked older than the rest, much older. The stone was cracked and flaked, and the exposed metal was tangled with rusty red plant growth. The mass of pillars stretched from one side of the valley to the other. The ground between them was raised off the jungle floor, and covered with vines. He pulled aside some of the leaves, and sure enough, the ground was Vex too.

"I'm detecting some interference coming from the center," Silla said, "There might be power running through these constructs."

He entered the complex, cautiously optimistic. He had been worried the ruins with Praedyth's message were the only active ones on the planet.

The pillars at the edge were the tallest, some thirty feet above his head, and they gradually got shorter as he approached the center. The vines and leaves weren't as thick further in. He could see strips of black glass mixed in with the stone and metal, just like on the Vex he had fought.

That meant something. He was sure of it. Problem was, he didn't know the Vex well enough to figure out what it was. Elva would know of course. All her studying and experiments had to be good for something.

"There's some kind of pattern to these columns," Silla said, "Vex constructs typically seem random and chaotic, but these…I'm fairly certain they're symmetric around the center of the ruins."

Dellander grunted. There was probably some meaning to that too. Not that he really cared at the moment. He just wanted to get out of this place, back to his own time, back to his friends.

He passed a gate between two of the pillars. It was dark. He continued further into the complex.

The last pillars dropped away, and he entered the structure's center. A single circular pillar rose from the middle of the open space. Curves of metal hung from the pillar, shaped vaguely like pieces of Vex bodies.

"You said there's power here?" Dellander asked.

"There is, but it's deep below the surface. This structure continues down hundreds of feet. The upper levels are inactive."

"So…if there's any active gates here, they'll be somewhere below, right?"

"Right."

He circled the base until he found a gap in the stones, roughly two feet square. The hole wasn't more than twelve feet deep. He lowered himself through and landed in a crouch.

Sunlight illuminated a pale square on the floor. Dellander stared into the gloom around him, trying to pierce the shadows. Silla floated down and filled the chamber with her light. The room wasn't very big, just barely tall enough to stand up straight, and not much wider across. It wrapped around the column base.

"I don't see any gates," Dellander said.

"Me neither," Silla replied, "But there _is_ power coming up through the underground portion of the column. It's definitely connected to the greater Vex networks."

Dellander slowly circled the room. There were gaps in the floor and walls that exposed the metallic substructure. None of them were wide or deep enough to crawl through. He was about to give up when he spotted a faint glow coming from a gap in the base of the column.

He knelt down and peered into the hole. A metal wire ran sideways across the back of the recess. The glow came from a filament that stopped a few inches under the wire. The end of another wire stuck out of the top of the recess. The horizontal fillament looked like it just might be long enough to bridge the gap…

"There's something in here," he said.

Silla floated down and scanned it. "It looks like a switch."

"Would closing it restore power to rest of the ruins?"

"Maybe. I mean, one side has power and the other doesn't."

Dellander reached in and wrapped his hand around the filament.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Silla shouted, "Are you crazy?"

"No. If I hook this up, the top parts of the ruins will light up and that gate we saw will open."

"And that's a good thing? It's generally best to leave sleeping ruins built by crazy time traveling murder-bots lie. We should just keep looking. We'll find another gate eventually."

"What's the worst that could happen?" Dellander asked.

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

"Come on, if things go sour, we can just bail."

"I don't think you're afraid enough of the Vex."

"Of course not. They should be afraid of me."

He grabbed the filament and twisted. It resisted at first, then slid into place with a click.

The Vex collective connected with the ruins, and it connected with _him_.

Waves of sensation washed over him. Cold, tingling, heat, and blinding pain tore through his body, but he was somewhere else. His mind rode on the shockwaves through the networks. He flew across time and space as the majesty of the Vex expanded before him. It was beautiful and stunning and wholly too much for his insufficient little brain to handle.

He caught impressions, glimpses into their world as he drifted. Millions, billions of little dots, each one of them sub-minds of the great collective. Axis minds embedded like pearls in the grid, and over them all lorded the core minds, brains the size of planets. Such power! Each strand was a single program in the machine. And at the edges, writhing Darkness and…shards of Light?

There wasn't enough time to process it all before he was yanked away. The present vanished. One axis held the future, vast and expansive and inevitable. So many possibilities, and so much conflict. And then there was the past, narrow and linear, all the way back to the very start, which just looped around to the future. Did the Vex have a beginning or end?

He could see it now, a vast pattern stretching encompassing all of reality. Eternal, immutable. He witnessed only a single slice of it, a poor approximation of his feeble mind, and even that tiny shard was beautiful beyond compare. He felt himself slide further in, and he didn't care. The future was theirs for the making. How could he ever resist? Such perfect beauty…

Something was wrong. All very very wrong. The pattern wasn't perfect. There were holes in it, connections ripped apart and sundered by little motes of Light that refused to bend to the will of the collective. Guardians, impossible living paradoxes. They revolted against the pattern and shattered it with their touch.

"Wake up."

The sharp voice called to him. It came from the edges of the pattern, trapped in a bendable box that would not be broken by his Light. Yet still, his meddling touch reached across the networks. He had a face, worn and wise, and also angry. Incredibly angry.

"You've started it," the man said, "And now you need to finish it. Wake up!"

Wake up.

"Wake up," the voice was saying. Not the man, but the woman. Husky and sarcastic, but terrified.

"God damnit Dellander. _Wake up!_ "

The pattern vanished, and reality came crashing back. Movement. Sound. Sensation

"We need to go now," the husky voice was saying, "This was a mistake. A very bad mistake."

He became aware that he was curled up on the floor, his skin covered with cold sweat and his insides shaking. The angular ball-thing floated over him.

What was its name? Sarah? No. Silla. Her name was Silla, and she was his Ghost. She was also his friend, and she was trembling in fear, which was strange for a little automaton.

No, she wasn't shaking, _he_ was. And it wasn't just him. The whole chamber vibrated. The walls had come to life, the pieces shifting and sliding and rearranging themselves.

He climbed slowly to his feet. The world spun for a moment, and then he finally found his footing. A warm glow came from the central pillar. Between the spinning and sliding metal, he caught glimpses of a flickering red orb the size of his head.

A single red eye flashed to life on the side of the pillar. Another appeared on the wall behind him, and then another, and another. Within moments, the room was covered with mechanical eyes.

"We need to leave _now_." Silla said.

The words shocked Dellander into action. He ran to the gap he had entered through. It was slowly shutting as the stone around the pillar crept past. He jumped up the shaft and pushed with a pulse of Light. He caught the edge of the hole and pulled himself out just as it ground shut.

Above, the ruins shifted and pulsed like something living. The center column spun and twisted. He jumped away as it split into tendrils of living metal. They reached out like limbs and planted themselves in the surrounding ruins. The ground around it surged to meet them. The tendrils pushed, and the base of the column tore free from the ground.

The metal continued to shift and fold. The limbs contracted and became wider, stronger. With some effort, the monstrous tangle of metal stood upright. The base of the pillar retracted into the shoulders, and the colossus was complete.

It looked vaguely mike a minotaur, only it had been cobbled together from bits of the ruins. And it was big. Very big, easily twice the height of a Gatelord. Its hulking shoulders were nearly as wide as it was tall, and its long arms bristled with weaponry. The flickering light was set in its chest, and its misshapen face was covered with a dozen eyes. Those eyes slowly focused on him.

Dellander ran. He threw himself between the pillars of the ruins as the colossus took a step forward, vines trailing from its body. It slowly pointed its arm at him.

He yelped and dove behind the nearest pillar. A beam of red light sliced from the arm and struck the pillar. It liquefied instantly. Dellander leapt away as a shower of molten metal rained down around him.

"So, uh, I figured out the pattern for the pillars," Silla said as he ran, "These ruins, they're arranged in the shape of a Julia set. A fractal."

Dellander slid to a stop and cursed. "You mean-"

"We just activated the Fractal Core."

He cursed again. He was an idiot. The stupidest, most moronic fool to ever walk the system.

Dark clouds sparked into existence between the ruins. The ground shook as the colossus began moving towards him.

He started running again as dozens of Vex appeared all around him. They were red, just like the ones he fought earlier. Dellander drew his gun and blasted through the pair of goblins in front of him. He kept running and shooting as more and more Vex appeared around him.

A minotaur and a pair of harpies materialized in his path. He ignited his Light in his pistol and incinerated them with bullets of starfire.

He splashed across a small creek that cut through the ruins. It flowed down a long corridor of pillars. A glowing gate stood at the far end.

Dellander turned and charged down the corridor. He didn't make it a hundred feet before a cluster of harpies burst from the ruins behind him. A pulse of Light shot down his arm. He shaped it into a cube and blindly tossed it backwards.

The grenade split into a dozen different pieces. They spread out and exploded as the harpies flew through it. One went down, and the others listed as the explosions knocked them to the side.

The colossus smashed between the ruins to the side. It fired again as he ran. He jumped as the beam vaporized a chunk of the stream. His feet steamed form the incredible heat.

"I don't know where this goes!" Silla shouted as he approached the gate.

"Anywhere is better than here!" Dellander screamed.

The colossus took aim again. Dellander pushed himself forward with everything he could muster.

He hit the gate just as the laser tore it in half.


	4. Chapter 4

Linvana passed through the portal and fell flat on her face.

She groaned and rolled onto her back as the gate evaporated with a sucking sound. Her insides felt like they had been pulled out and put back together inside out. Throbbing pain pounded at her temples.

After a few moments, the pain subsided enough for her to roll to her side and sit up. "That is _not_ what transfer gates feel like."

"Oh? And you're an expert on time traveling aliens' gates should 'feel' like?" Polaris asked.

"I've fought enough matches on Crossroads and Vertigo to have an idea," she muttered.

Linvana forced down the pain and took stock of her surroundings. She stood on a small square of orange glass, with the gate attached to the back. For a moment she thought the sky had been turned orange too, then she realized she was directly underneath a huge slab of the same glass. It extended in the distance in every direction. She peered over the edge of the platform, where ripples of sand covered the ground hundreds of feet below. Dozens of blocky columns stretched between the ground to the glass, supporting the huge slab. She stood on the side of one of those columns. Clumps of Vex ruins clustered the bases of the pillars, transforming the bizarre underworld into a labyrinth.

And through it all, there wasn't a single sign of Elva.

"Damnit," Linvana muttered, "We were only a second behind her. Where is she?"

"Uh, remember how I told you the other end of the portal was shifting through time?" Polaris said, "Right before Elva jumped through, and then you decided to heroically leap after her?"

"Yes, I remember," she replied.

"Well, you went in just after Elva did, but you still went separately," the Ghost continued, "During the interval, the far end could have moved to a completely different point in time."

"Meaning…"

"Meaning Elva could have ended up thousands of years in the past or future. _We_ could have ended up thousands of years in the past or future, and there's no guarantee we're in remotely the same timeframe."

Linvana leaned back against the gate as she suddenly became nauseous again. "Shit." She and Elva were completely lost in time. She immediately blamed herself of course. The Warlock had been acting strangely. Linvana should have noticed it before it put them in danger.

"I should have stopped her," she said aloud, "But I was an idiot for going through myself."

"You shouldn't blame yourself," Polaris said. He appeared in front of your face. "I know what you're thinking. They _are_ Guardians too. You're just their leader, not their babysitter. You can't stop everything bad from happening."

"No, but I can stop them from walking into a trap, which is what this feels like," Linvana said. She glanced back at the gate. "Any chance we'll be able to go back through this thing?"

"Unlikely," Polaris replied, "With the way the bridge was jumping around, odds are it won't connect to this terminal for another thousand years, if at all."

Linvana chewed her lip, weighing her options. "Okay then. If we're going to be stuck here a while, we might as well figure out where and when exactly 'here' is."

* * *

The pillars, like most Vex structures, were made of stacks of stone and metal. That gave Linvana plenty of ledges and lips to traverse on her way down. She landed with a puff of sand and Light.

"Any ideas?" she asked.

"Straight ahead seems as good of a direction as any," Polaris replied.

Linvana started walking. She crossed the open space between the pillars and entered a stand of glass blocks.

"These must be the foundations for the monolith," Polaris noted as she walked, "They're just as active as the superstructure above, and they're throwing off some weird distortions."

She passed between the first pair of blocks. It almost felt like walking through a forest. A forest of squat, branchless trees.

"Any guesses as to exactly when in time we are?" Linvana asked.

"I'm not entirely sure about that," Polaris replied, "I've been scanning the sand, looking for isotopes or fission remnants I can use to date it, but there's nothing. It's pure silicon dioxide with a uniform coating of hematite, exactly like it's synthetic. "

"So what does that mean?"

"I think it means were in a reality the Vex constructed, like the Black Garden or the vault of Glass."

Linvana chewed on that for a minute. "The Garden and the Vault are connected to real locations on Mars and Venus. Do you think we could just walk back out of this place?"

"That could work if it was still attached to our timeline, but I'm fairly certain this place is adrift in the time stream, like the Garden was before the Heart was destroyed. That would mean the only way out is through the gate network."

"That doesn't leave us with a lot of options."

"No, it doesn't."

"We keep going then, see if we can the border, maybe an entrance or exit of some sort."

They continued walking through the stacks of glass and metal. She passed from one cluster to the next, with only stretches of sand between. After several hours, it was hard to tell if she was making any progress. She thought she could see something, maybe the sky, beyond the edge of the great glass slab, but it was difficult to judge the distance.

"Hold on," Polaris said suddenly, causing Linvana to jump.

"What is it?"

"I'm detecting residual traces of Light, like a Guardian passed nearby some time ago."

Linvana snapped to alert. If there was Light, it could only be from Elva. She reached over her shoulder and drew her Khvostov rifle. "Where?"

"Up ahead, to the right," Polaris said. A marker appeared on her visor. She started jogging.

The marker led her to a narrow space between a row of metal blocks and a long, smooth sheet of glass.

"Where is she?" Linvana asked, "Where is the Light?"

"It's beneath us. Try digging."

Linvana set her rifle down and started clawing at the sand. A moment later, her fingers brushed against something solid. She kept digging and uncovered a dull blue Ghost. Its single eye was black and inert.

"No," Linvana said, her heart dropping to her feet, "no, no, no. This can't be…"

"Calm down," Polaris said, "It's not her Ghost. Erytheia was wearing a Towerwatch shell. This is a Winter Sky shell." He scanned the dead husk. "Wait a minute, it's not even complete Ghost. It's just a casing with a single memory core, a fragment."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It wasn't Elva's Ghost. Wherever she was, there was a chance she was still alive. She had to be.

Linvana stood up and stared through the sheet of glass. The ruins on the other side looked like any of the other blocks down here, but somehow, they were…off. The coloration was slightly different, or maybe the breeze was blowing form the opposite direction. She couldn't quite place her finger on it.

"There's intact files in the memory core," Polaris said. The Ghost shell shuddered and dissolved as Polaris transmatted it away.

Movement in the distance, on the other side of the glass. Linvana frowned. An armored figure appeared between two far pillars. It held a rifle in its hands.

"The files…they're audio recordings," Polaris said.

Several more people followed. The first one turned around and waited for the rest of the group to pass. As soon as the last one was behind them, it opened fire at something Linvana couldn't see. The automatic weapon flashed several times, but no sound followed.

The figure in the back waved the group on. The started jogging towards the glass wall. They were too far away to make out much, but they looked ragged and worn. Clothing was dusty and ripped, and their motions were clearly exhausted. The figure in the back, the one with the auto-rifle, wore dented and scratched armor, and had a tattered sash hanging from their waist. A Titan.

"Linvana?" Polaris prompted.

"Play them," she said.

A voice spoke, taught and worn, but also sharp and angry. Praedyth. "The Vex are masters of reality. They want everything to fit into their perfect little plan. The Light and the Darkness though, they don't follow the rules. They split reality apart, rearrange the universe with their touch. And what the Vex can't understand, they worship."

The group approached a pillar a short distance away from the wall. Whatever the Titan had fired at didn't follow. The Titan gave the all clear, and the group sat down. They were close enough now that Linvana could see them in more detail. They were in even worse shape than she thought. Their gear was on the verge of falling apart. Some of them held weapons that looked like they might disintegrate if they were fired. And…was that a trio of Fallen at the back of the group?

"They don't understand the Light or the Darkness because they can't predict them," Praedyth's voice continued, "They refuse to follow their models. They don't fit their pattern. Over the eons though, they've learned to make approximations, rough pictures of what a future might look like, based on what their observations of the Light and Dark.

That's what this place is for, to run those simulations, millions of them at once, to glimpse how the foretold future evolves."

As the group began pulling supplies out of their packs, the Titan wandered towards the wall. It was a woman, judging by the narrow waist. Her gaze passed right over Linvana.

 _She can't see me_ , Linvana realized.

"You're watching one of those simulations now. It's only one in many but to them, it's all the same."

The Titan sat down and pulled off her helmet. A mop of dirty red hair spilled out, framing a face with square jaw and amber eyes. Linvana gasped. She was old and worn, had more scars, but she immediately realized what she was seeing. Herself, in the future.

"The simulations are varied. Some of them end in annihilation, some in stalemate. Each and every one of them is different, but they all have one thing in common."

The future Linvana pulled something from her belt. A Ghost, dead and cracked, its single optic dark. The remains of Azul, Telysa's Ghost. The simulation Linvana stared at it, a single tear sliding down her cheek.

"Ten years from now, you will be the last living Guardian."

* * *

Linvana watched the simulation, numb and confused. She reached out and touched the glass. The simulation flickered, and she realized the image was actually inside the wall, not beyond it.

Her future self continued to stare at the dead Ghost. Several minutes went by.

"What else does it say?" Linvana asked.

"That's it," Polaris replied, "That's the end of the recording."

"There has to be more to it."

"Not in this fragment. Let me try looking for more."

The future Linvana stood up and tucked the dead Ghost away. She walked back to the group, and motioned for them to get moving. Reluctantly, they climbed to their feet and started walking. They moved parallel to the glass wall.

"I've got something," Polaris said, "Another fragment, on the column up ahead."

Linvana glanced to the side. There, sitting in an alcove in one of the pillars, was another Ghost shell. Polaris wordlessly transmatted it away.

"Play it," she said as she followed the phantom band of refugees.

Praedyth's voice started speaking again. "The City always falls some way or another. Heh. Lakshmi got that right. In this particular simulation, it was the Cabal that destroyed the City. Sometimes it's the Fallen, others, the Hive. The Cabal killed millions and captured the Traveler. What was left of humanity went on the run.

"The Hive showed up a few months later. It turns out Oryx has two sisters, and they're just as nasty as he was. The Cabal weren't so easily defeated though. They fought back, and the war nearly ripped the system apart. Mars and the Moon were destroyed. In the end, the Cabal vaporized half of the Earth's surface to keep the Traveler out of the Hive's clutches. In the chaos, the Fallen saw an opening and pounced. They slaughtered the Reef, and took out a good chunk of the survivors from the City too."

The voice stopped. "That's all that's on this fragment," Polaris said.

Linvana didn't respond. She kept following the simulation. She knew it wasn't real, just a possibility, a guess, but it _looked_ real. Those were real scratches on her doppelganger's armor, real scars on her face.

The last Guardian, Praedyth had said. That meant in every possible version of the future the Vex could conceive everyone she knew was dead. Zavala. Ikora. Dellander. Elva

Telysa.

Linvana stopped. The realization felt like getting stabbed in the gut. No, she knew what a stab in the gut felt like. This was worse. If Praedyth was telling the truth, _everything_ was doomed.

She stopped herself. There was nothing to say Praedyth was telling the truth. She thought back to earlier, when she started to suspect this was all a trap. He could be making all this up to trick her.

Up ahead, her simulated self was slowly leading the refugees away. That future at least was tangible. The other version of herself carried Telysa's broken Ghost. She would follow that simulation at least and see what happened.

The glass sheet that held the image continued for a long ways, so far that the end was lost in the distance. As she walked along it, she wondered why the vision of the future would be inside the glass. Was it a projection from some adjacent future? Was the simulation generated in the glass itself?

She didn't have the chance think on it more. Up ahead, her future self motioned for the refugees to stop. She surveyed the surrounding ruins, watching for something. She spoke something to the group behind her. The ones with weapons scrambled to take up defensive positions. Something had set them on guard.

The group waited, tension thick enough to cut.

A writhing black shape burst from the sand in the refugees' midst. Future Linvana spun to face it even as the refugees scrambled away. Her rifle flashed as the creature extracted itself from the sand and spun around, searching for prey. It looked like a thrall, except its skin was charred black, and its limbs were bent and mishappen.

The twisted thrall flinched as several bullets struck it. It hissed and launched itself at the nearest refugee. They went down in a tangle of claws and limbs. The other Linvana charged the creature, even as three more sprang up on the far side of the group.

She gasped and raised her hand to the glass as blood spurted from the refugee's neck. Future Linvana tackled the creature off the human. She pulled herself free and struck it with the butt of her rifle until it stopped moving.

Muzzles flashed as the refugees with weapons fired at the other three thrall. One of them went down after taking a shotgun blast to the chest, but the other two struck the defenders, slashing and biting. Future Linvana reloaded and emptied her rifle into the closest one. The torrent of bullets ripped it to pieces before it could finish the kill.

The remaining thrall jumped to the next refugee, one of the Fallen. The vandal scrambled and raised a rusted sword to block the attack. The thrall hissed and charged again. This time, the vandal was ready, and the sword went straight down the thrall's throat.

It crumpled, dead.

For a moment, nobody moved. Linvana watched, horrified, as blood from the two downed refugees soaked the sand.

Then her future self was on the move, searching for more attackers, checking injuries. The rest of the group slowly started to move again. They took the packs from their dead comrades and split the contents amongst themselves. After making sure their injuries were seen to, future Linvana sat down and started repairing her rifle.

"Uh, Linvana?" Polaris said next to her, "I found a hidden file in the Ghost. There's another message from Praedyth."

Linvana slowly lowered her hand from the glass, but she kept watching the simulation. "Play it," she whispered.

Praedyth's voice returned, crisp and clear. "The war could have gone on for decades, but in all the chaos, everyone forgot about the Vex. The machines perfected their ontological weapons, and just like that, it was over. Within hours, ninety nine percent of the Cabal and Hive were gone, wiped from existence.

"And that was it. The Vex won. They controlled the universe, and had achieved their perfect form. The survivors weren't a threat anymore. What remained of the Cabal and Hive wasted away.

"As for humanity, well, you're looking at what's left. Seventeen humans, twelve Awoken, three Fallen, and one Guardian. Everyone else is dead. They fled to Mercury because it was the only place they could hide from the fighting. They stayed because there are no ships left.

The future Linvana stood up and motioned for the refugees to start moving again. They slowly stood up and began walking away from the glass, leaving the two dead lying on the sand.

"They know it's only a matter of time. Every day, they grow weaker, their supplies dwindle. Sometimes, they run into a band of starving Hive or a squad of Vex and they lose another one. It's pointless of course. There's no way they can possibly survive, but they keep going anyway. Too damn stubborn to take it lying down I guess."

The last of the refugees vanished behind a pillar in the distance, and Linvana was alone, staring at a lifeless sheet of glass that had held her future.

She turned away and started slowly walking in a random direction. "That," she whispered quietly, "was horrifying."

"If what he said is even remotely true," Polaris replied, "Then we have some major problems."

Linvana closed her eyes and pushed the churning knot of emotions aside. Other priorities first. "Our first problem is getting out of this place. Surely there must be more gates somewhere."

"I'll give it another look. Try to find some high ground."

Linvana slung her Khvostov over her shoulder and searched for something to climb. She selected a nearby pillar that was maybe forty feet high. A few pulses of Light later, she was standing on the top.

"Let's see what we got," Polaris muttered. He floated above Linvana's head and split his shell apart to boost his sensor gain.

"I'm not really detecting anything," he said after a moment, "The spatial geometry is too twisted and tangled to make any sense - wait, I'm detecting more traces of Light."

"Another message? Where?"

"300 meters to the left." A marker appeared on her visor.

Linvana jumped from the pillar and hit the sand full force. She started jogging. The marker led her through a thicket of pillars and into an open stretch of sand. Right there in the middle was another dead Ghost.

She picked it up and handed it to her own Ghost, who transmatted it and played it without a word.

"You're probably wondering why I brought you here," Praedyth said, "I'm sure it feels like a trap, a setup, and well, you're not wrong. The means available to me in this cell are limited. Getting that message out was probably the hardest thing I've ever done. So yes, it's a trap, but if my plan works, it will be one for them, not us.

"I've been stuck in here for a while. I've seen their future, and I've seen that it can change. The visions I showed you weren't like that before you defeated the Taken. When the blight's hold on their minds was broken, it opened up the future for them to win. Since then, I've been forced to listen as they slowly tighten the noose around their enemies. When I discovered the hole the Sunbreaker's left, I finally knew there was hope. We can change their future again, but I need your help.

"This monolith houses one of their weapons. If you can destroy it before it's completed, then maybe there's a chance. You'll need to take out the architect of the creation along with it; else they'll just build it again. Once the Hunter draws out the axis mind, you won't have much time.

"There's a gate about a kilometer form where this fragment is. I've included coordinates for your Ghost. Exactly twenty eight hours after you got here, it will open and take you back to your time. Hold the Light close. You're going to need it."

The voice stopped.

"Is that it?" Linvana asked.

"Yes."

"This has been the strangest damn mission. You have the coordinates?"

A marker appeared on her visor. She started walking towards it.

She stopped paying attention to her surroundings, lost in thought. Her mind kept wandering back to Telysa's dead Ghost in her simulation's hands. How had the Hunter died? If she died fighting, then Linvana should have been fighting right beside her. Did Telysa sacrifice herself to save Linvana? Had they gotten separated somehow?

A darker thought crossed her mind. What if they weren't together at all when it happened? What if they had gone their separate ways? There was a patrol posting for a single Guardian when Linvana left the Tower. She had been thinking about accepting it, to give herself some time to think. Did Telysa die alone because Linvana hadn't said yes?

Did running away make her worst fear come true?

 _Stop it_ , she chided herself. Telysa was still alive, back at the Tower. She was overthinking things. Those simulations were just guesses, not prophecies. If there was even the slightest chance though…

"We're here," Polaris said, jolting Linvana out of her stupor.

She looked up. A broad slab of glass loomed over her. Mounted on the back was a Vex gate. She pushed herself up the side of the slab and crossed to the gate. The metal was dark and lifeless.

"How much longer until Praedyth said it would open?" she asked.

"About twenty-two hours," Polaris replied.

Linvana leaned against the metal, drained and exhausted.

"Keep watch," she told her Ghost.

She laid down on the smooth glass next to the gate, but it was a long time before she got any sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Elva stumbled into the crimson light.

She swayed on her feet as her robotic body recalibrated. The heat hit immediately, smothering her like a blanket even through the climate controls of her gear. The temperature readout on her helmet spiked to 420 Celsius. Hot enough to melt lead. If she were human, she would be dead.

The wave of dizziness and nausea passed, and she straightened herself. Behind her, the gate closed with a snap.

The painfully bright light stabbed at her eyes. The very air around her, thin as it was, seemed to burn. She raised her hand to block the glare, but it was everywhere. The whole sky was on fire, a great red glow that stretched nearly from one horizon to the other. How could the sky…

"Shit." Elva breathed. The red light didn't come from the air, it was coming from the sun, swollen to a thousand times its normal size. She had been carried into the future. _Five billion years_ into the future, at the end of the solar system and the death of the sun.

The nausea came back like a punch to the stomach. She stumbled towards the gate as her knees gave out. Her fingers clawed at the metal, but it was no use. The portal was dead.

She dragged herself away from the gate and nearly fell off the edge. An empty abyss stretched out before her, making the vertigo even worse. Miles below, the wisps of haze drifted across the blackened planet surface.

Elva pushed away from the edge. She was too weak to stand up. Instead, she curled up into a ball and started sobbing.

Ikora had warned her, years back, when she chose to study the Vex. Warned her of Guardians driven mad by the machines. Osiris was exiled for his obsessions. Countless Warlocks had met their end in the ruins. Just last year, the old Hunter Tevis died trying to map their networks. And still Elva insisted on continuing her research.

Look where that got her. Whispers in her head, slowly going insane. Why had she listened to them? Now she was trapped in the future, on a melting world, lost in the dark corners of time. Would her friends even remember her? Or would she vanish from their memories like Praedyth had?

Pradeyth. The Warlock lost to time. Just like herself. He was dead, and the Vex used his voice to lure her to this place. She should have known that.

"Elva," a soft voice said. Erytheia, her Ghost. "Elva, it's too hot out here. We'll start to malfunction if we're exposed for much longer. We need to find shelter."

She slowly lifted her head and stared at Erytheia. "What's the point? We're already dead. Finding shelter will only make it last longer."

"We can find a way to escape," the Ghost insisted, "We've studied Vex technology for years. If anyone can find a way back, it's us."

Elva shook her head. "No Erytheia, no we can't."

"You should listen to your Ghost. She might just save your life someday," a voice said behind her. It sounded exactly like…

A Warlock stood at the lip of the ledge. His robes were tattered his helmet was covered in scratches.

"Praedyth…" Elva whispered.

"I'm sorry for the mess," he said, waving at the burning hellscape behind him, "but this was the only place and time I could talk to you face to face. I'm actually kinda surprised the gate connected this far forward. We might just be able to get you back.

Elva uncurled herself and stood up. "You're…you're dead. How are here? Are you an illusion?"

Praedyth chuckled. "You should know better than that. Anything is possible with the Vex. They'll keep me alive as long as they think they might need a Guardian's help. As for being an illusion, well, maybe. The real me is sitting in a time-locked cell at the bottom of the Vault of Glass. What you're seeing is just a projection."

A booming rumble echoed through the air. In the distance, a spire shuddered and listed to the side. It fell in slow motion as the stones at its base crumbled. The great tower crashed into the ground in an explosion of dust and glass. A moment later, the shockwaves reverberated through the ledge.

Praedyth glanced over his shoulder, at the remains of the spire. "Come on," he said, turning back to Elva, "We're running out of time. You really do need to get to shelter. If you die, we're all screwed."

* * *

The gate was perched on the side of a huge tower of glass and metal. Elva could only assume the massive structure was the same monolith they had entered in the past. Praedyth led her along a series of ledges that ran across the face, towards a dark cleft between the blocks in the distance.

She kept the Warlock in front of her, but she quickly realized he wasn't a threat. The wind didn't ruffle his robes, and his footsteps made no sound. When they crossed gaps between the ledges, Elva would glide over using the Light, while he just floated from one to the other. He said he was using some sort of projection. Whatever form he had in this future, it held no substance.

By the time they finally reached the gap in the wall, her limbs were starting to cramp and seize up in the heat. She barely made it across the last gap, and let out a long sigh of relief when they finally entered the shade. It was immediately cooler under the shelter of the glass. The thin air was still superheated and toxic, but with the protection of her equipment, she would survive at least.

"Okay Praedyth," Elva said, "We've reached shelter. I want answers now. You can start by explaining why we're having this conversation at the death of our sun."

He stared at her for a moment, then glanced down the corridor, which led deeper into the monolith. "We still have a ways to go. I'll explain as we walk." He set off down the corridor. Elva bit her lip and followed.

"The machines keep a tight leash on me," Praedyth said, "It took me years, but I learned how to reach into their networks, see the world as they do. I eventually managed to project my mind entirely into their webs and travel along them, but I couldn't go very far with them watching so closely. Until I found this place."

They rounded a corner, and immediately the heat subsided another level. The hallway expanded, growing taller and more lopsided.

"This world, if you noticed, is dying," he continued, "It will soon be vaporized entirely. At this point in the timeline, they don't care about it anymore. Its purpose was completed long ago anyway. It's useless to them, so they see no harm in letting me have a look around. To them, I'm just a tiny speck floating around in their final shape. They underestimated me though, because I'm here talking with you."

"Wait," Elva said, "You said this is their final shape? You mean they've completed the pattern?

"In a manner of speaking." He raised his arms dramatically and let his voice echo down the corridor. "Welcome to the end of all timelines, the final shape of the Vex. The eternal dominance of the Vex. All of existence belongs to them. The universe is theirs."

"But when you spoke to me in the Vault of Glass, you said they predicted their annihilation. You even showed me their immutable doom. How could they have…" She trailed off, the realization finally dawning on her. "I did this, didn't I?"

Praedyth glanced at her. "Go on…"

"The Vex couldn't escape the Taken, but when I destroyed the Blighted Descendant, I freed them. I broke the corruption's hold, and let them complete their purpose. This is my fault…"

Praedyth nodded. "Don't blame yourself. You changed everything for the Vex that day. I had no idea what the result would be, but now they've come to this. The entire course of their entire existence shifted that day. If we're lucky though, we can do it again today."

The path turned again, and they were once again moving towards the center of the monolith. The interior was dark, suffused with a dim red glow. Despite the heat, Elva shivered. The red aura reminded her all too much of the SIVA invested complexes beneath the Plaguelands.

"After you destroyed the blight," Praedyth continued, "The Vex's future evolved at an incredible pace. I watched as new weapons evolved and took form. Weapons they intend to use to take control of the universe and destroy humanity. I was helpless to do anything about it. I could see their plans, but I couldn't warn anyone. Until I discovered the Sunbreakers that is."

"The Sunbreakers? What do they have to do with this?" Elva asked.

"Everything," Praedyth replied, "The crazy fool Osiris taught them how to manipulate the Vex network, shape it to their will. They made quite a bit of noise when they started poking around the networks on Mercury. They caused all kinds of trouble for the machines, including tearing a small hole in the cage of my cell."

"Wait, so that's why your message came from their shrine. You piggybacked on their intrusion to communicate with us."

"Exactly. The hole wasn't open for very long, barely twelve hours, but it was enough. In addition to the transmission, I left messages for your friends, and I nudged the transfer gates just enough to get you where you needed to go. Getting you to actually enter the portals, well, I was quite surprised when I discovered you had a connection."

"What do you mean, a connection…"

Elva trailed off, the question forgotten, as they stepped out of the end of the corridor.

The interior of the monolith opened up before them. The huge space stretched in every direction. The floor was lost in the darkness far below, and the ceiling was immeasurably high above them. They stood on a narrow walkway that ran around the edge of the chamber. Through the gloom, she could just barely make out a cluster of blocks floating near the far side.

"That's where we're going," Praedyth said, pointing to the floating platforms. "There's a gate there. If everything goes according to plan, it should take you back to your time."

Elva followed him down the path as he resumed talking.

"The Sunbreakers have been a double edged sword against the Vex," he was saying, "They penetrated deep into the collective's layers, but in their recklessness, they also exposed their methods to the machines. I guess you could say their meddling is why you're here."

"I'm listening," Elva said.

"You saw what the Sunbreakers did at the Forge. They used the Vex's technology to collect and concentrate Solar energy. The Vex had been trying to learn the process themselves - that's why they didn't touch Icarus - but they couldn't quite crack it. The Sunbreakers did it for them. They machines copied their work, and built an array to focus the Solar and turn it into a form they can harness."

"Is that this the weapon you're talking about? The one you want us to destroy?"

"It is. This entire monolith was designed around that purpose. You'll find the fruit of their efforts at the top. They built an entire programing collective around their pursuit of the sun. If the collective completes their goal, they will become indestructible, and unstoppable. You have to destroy its axis mind before that happens."

The reached the corner of the vast chasm and continued down the side.

"The axis mind itself kept hidden deep within the timeline. Your Hunter friend should hopefully be able to draw it out of its shell. If he succeeds though, their timeline will move up considerably. You'll only have a day or two at most."

"So is that it then?" Elva asked, "Find and destroy an axis mind. That sounds simple enough."

"It's never that easy with the Vex," Praedyth muttered.

"I know that as much as you do," Elva said, "But that still doesn't answer my first question: why am I _here_."

"I just told you, you're here to stop the Vex," he said.

"Yes, you've made that abundantly clear, but you said you left messages for Dellander and Linvana. Why didn't you do the same for me? Why bring me to this, the end of the Solar System? If time is of the essence, then what's the point of talking to me face to face."

"Well, I guess it's because you're a special one. To me and to them, Elva. Did you know the Vex are fascinated with you? Even as you've studied them, they've watched your every move."

"That doesn't surprise me. I've made a career out of destroying their machines, but that's not an answer. Try again."

"Oh, but it's part of the answer. There are plenty of Guardians that have fought and studied the Vex. But they don't have the same connection, the same _closeness_ you do."

"That's the second time you've said something about a connection," Elva said, "What does that even mean?"

"The voices," Praedyth said, "The whispers in your head. The ones I spoke to you with. There's a bridge between you and the Vex."

Elva laughed. "That wasn't a bridge Praedyth, that was them invading my mind and driving me crazy. That makes me no more special that any other Guardian driven mad by the machines. You know for a fact what happened to Kabr."

"Hmph," Praedyth said, "Tell me Elva, what was your first weapon?"

"Don't you dare try to change the subject," she warned.

"I'm trying to answer your question," he insisted, "but I'm trying to figure out how. This will make sense in a minute, I promise. Humor me. Please."

"Okay…" Elva muttered. She was beginning to wonder if the illusory Warlock wasn't quite sane. Maybe he wasn't even real at all, and she was going insane. She had heard the Vex in her head. That was usually the first sign. If that was true though, she was too far gone to do anything about it. Might as well play along.

"My first gun was a Psi Umbra pulse rifle," she said, "It was standard Vanguard issue, given to new Guardians that arrived at the Tower."

"And what about before that?"

"I didn't have anything else…actually, I had a pair of Vex weapons. The first was a slap rifle, I took it off the body of the first goblin I killed. Is that what you're talking about?"

"Sure. What happened to it? Do you still have it?"

"No. I carried it with me for a while, but I dropped it. It slipped out of my grip as I crossed a chasm, in the Vault of Glass…" She didn't finish as pieces of the puzzle began to settle in back of her head.

"You lost it in the Vault," Praedyth said, "Just like Kabr and I lost our weapons when we entered. If you keep something near a Guardian for long enough, the Light starts to change it, infuse it. But the Vex react violently to the Light. It breaks their models when it's introduced to their system, and it warps their grand pattern.

"You know what happens to things in the Vault. The schisms of time and space changed them, fused them with the pattern and bent them into shapes lethal to the Vex. The Light turned their technology into strange hybrids of Guardian and Vex technology.

"When you lost your slap rifle, I expected much the same thing to happen. Your weapon did indeed react when it touched the strands of infinity. It only had a few traces of Light in it, but the effect stretched far and wide across the pattern."

"You're not making any sense," Elva said, "Is there a copy of the slap rifle out there somewhere? One fused with the Light?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes." Praedyth stopped, and Elva realized they had reached the formation of floating blocks. They were arranged in a courtyard of sorts, with five circular gates at the back. It seemed vaguely familiar somehow.

A low pedestal sat in the middle of the courtyard. On it rested a gleaming rifle. Smooth panels of gold encased a sleek black frame. She immediately thought it was a Vex weapon, but she quickly realized it couldn't be. There was a grip and a stock, and a scope mounted on top, like a human-made weapon.

Elva slowly approached the pedestal. "What is it?" she asked.

"It's your slap rifle, or what's become of it," Praedyth said, "The weapon you dropped in the vault skipped like a stone on the ocean of the Vex's future. It cast ripples far throughout their networks, left a mark on their final form, a twisted loop of time and space. This is what it became. The inevitable end of the Vex. Their final Mythoclast."

Elva picked up the weapon. She raised it to her shoulder. It fit perfectly, as if it had been tailored to her body. The balance, the grip, the weight, it was all exactly as she would have built it.

"How?" she whispered.

"I wondered the same thing," Praedyth said, "How is it that the Vex networks react so disproportionately to your presence? I've watched as Guardians fought the machines. They snapped the predictions, shattered the future, but you were always more. You never realized it, but you actively reshape the Vex every time you come in contact with them. For years, you've bent and warped their pattern to your will."

"What are you talking about?" Elva demanded, "I don't know how to control the networks. Why do you think I've been chasing the Vex my entire life?"

"I said I brought you here because you were different." Praedyth stepped forward, hands clasped behind his back. "I've been the Vex's prisoner for a long time. When they first captured me, they studied me. They pulled me apart and put me back together again, and again, _and again_. They were trying to figure out what made me tick. They couldn't understand the Light, so they thought maybe if they could build something capable of channeling it, they could learn how it works.

"You have a special place in the pattern, Elva. You're neither a part of it nor apart from it. What if, in their effort to channel the Light, they captured a Guardian, and made a copy of it, made a body compatible with the Light, so they could see what happens when the Light touched it, and from that, learn how the Light works. If they did that, what would be the result?"

"No," Elva whispered.

"Think about it," he insisted, "It makes sense! How else can you explain why you're so close to the Vex? You were born on Venus, amongst the ruins. Do you remember anything of who you were before?"

"No," Elva said again, "No, I am _not_ one of them. I can't be. I'm a Guardian."

"Of course you're a Guardian. Don't you get it? You're both. The Light gave you life and consciousness, made you something new! You don't remember your number. That's because you don't have one. That day on the beach was the first time you ever woke up. You call yourself Elva 'Prime' because you're the first of your kind. It's the only explanation that makes sense!"

"No!" Elva shouted, more forcefully than she intended. She swallowed and stared at Praedyth. "You're lying to me. What you're saying can't be true."

"I'm sorry Elva, but it is."

Behind her, one of the gates opened. The fourth gate from the left.

And then she realized where she had seen it all before. The courtyard, the platforms, the gates, they were the same ones she had fought atop the day she was born, in the wilds of Venus all those years ago. They had recreated it here, in perfect glass replica, as part of the final shape of Mercury.

"It's time for you to go," Praedyth said quietly.

She spun around, emotions burning a hole in her chest. "I am _not_ leaving. I need answers."

"I'm sorry, but you're going to have to find them on your own."

Elva turned to the gate, then back to Praedyth.

"That gate won't stay open for long," Praedyth warned, seeing her hesitate, "You need to go, or you'll be trapped here."

"Then teach me how to control the gates," Elva demanded. "I'm not leaving. You say I bend their networks to my will. Prove it."

"I can't," Praedyth said.

"Yes you can. You bent the gates to bring me here. You understand how they work. You have the secret I've been searching for."

Praedyth shook his head. "I can't. Even if we had the time, it's not something that can be taught. You have to discover it on your own. Find Osiris. He can set you on the right path."

"Don't you dare deny me, not after what you just told me" she growled.

"Goodbye Elva." And just like that, he was gone. His form vanished, without a trace he was ever there. For a moment, she just stared at the space where he had stood, thoughts tumultuous.

"I will find you," Elva promised, "I'll find you, and you'll give me my answers."

She turned to the gateway, the Mythoclast in her hands. The swirling vortex pulsed uncertainly, like the countless questions spinning in her mind.

Elva took a deep breath and stepped into the light.


	6. Chapter 6

Dellander hit the ground face first.

The gate behind him exploded in a shower of sparks. He yelped and scrambled away from the gate, which wasn't easy with his insides all twisted in knots. The gate continued to crackle and pop with electricity until with one final snap, the metal layers peeled apart and crashed to the ground.

He stared at the wreckage, utterly stunned and exhausted. His breath came in ragged gasps, and his heart hammered in his chest. Images of infinity kept flashing before his eyes. An ocean. A vast ocean of futures, all ending with destruction. And that colossus was the beginning.

"What the hell was that thing?" he finally managed to say. His voice quivered.

"It was an axis mind," Silla said, "But unlike anything I've ever seen or heard of before. Its chassis was built from Vex architecture. Fascinating."

Dellander gritted his teeth and stood up. "Yeah well, 'fascinating' just nearly melted us in two."

He was standing in a small alcove, some twenty feet across. The walls and floor were the same yellow-orange glass of the monolith. That was a good sign. The sun burned overhead, bloated and white. The sky around it was black. Opposite the remains of the gate was a gap in the walls. That was the only way out.

"Alright Silla," Dellander said, "Any idea when and where we are this time?"

"The sky is back to normal," the Ghost said, "well, normal for Mercury of our time. I can't be exactly sure, but the stars that are visible look like they're in the right places. We just might have made it back to our time. Which would be a hell of a coincidence if we are."

"I'm starting to think it's not a coincidence. We were Praedyth's bait, weather we wanted it or not."

He knelt and pulled his pistol out from under the remains of the gate. It had a new scratch or two on it, but was no worse for the wear. He reloaded it and slid it into his holster. "Right then. Let's get out of here."

The corridor led away from the alcove a short distance, before turning right. It turned right attain, and branched in a T.

"It's a maze," he realized. He glanced up at the walls. They were too tall to jump, and too smooth to climb. "Silla, any chance you can fly up and figure out a way out of here before we get lost?"

The Ghost appeared by his side and shot up into the air. She continued past the top of the wall and spun around several times.

"Okay," she said when she came back down, "I found a route that should take us to the edge, but it will take us past some energy signatures. Expect trouble."

Dellander drew his pistol. "Wonderful."

* * *

"Just how big is this thing?" Dellander asked after an hour of brisk walking. He rounded another corner, always following Silla's marker. Some parts of the labyrinth were square, others were circular. It was all very confusing.

"At least twenty miles across, from what I could see," Silla replied, "It could take us days to get out."

"Now you tell me."

"Um yeah, sorry about that. We're also approaching an energy signature."

Dellander sighed and drew his pistol. At least life as a Guardian was never boring. He approached the next corner slowly, pressing up against the wall and sliding forward.

He peaked around the edge and saw a flaming fist coming towards his face.

Pain flashed across his face as he tumbled backwards. A blast of heat washed over him. He blindly fired three shots from his pistol. Two of them cracked off glass. The third struck something solid.

"Ow!" his attacker yelped, "Dellander stop, it's me."

Dellander shook the spots out of his eyes. His visor was crisscrossed with a web of cracks, but he could make out a red and yellow figure standing over him. Linvana, auto-rifle in one hand, the other pressed against her side

He groaned and let his head rest on the hard ground. "I never thought I'd be so happy to get punched by a Titan in my entire life."

"Yeah well, you shot me." She adjusted her hand as a trickle of blood seeped between her fingers. His shot had clipped the edge of her chest plate and grazed across her side. Her Ghost appeared and bathed the wound in Light. The bleeding stopped, and the tear in her under-armor filled in.

Silla floated over him and fixed his helmet. The throbbing pain in his forehead abated. He stood up and embraced Linvana.

"I'm going to be honest," Dellander said, "I was worried I'd never see you again."

Linvana nodded. "Same." She pulled away and looked up and down his freshly scratched armor. "What happened to you? You didn't follow me through the gate, did you?"

"Well…" Dellander said sheepishly.

The Titan shook her head. "Believe it or not, I think Praedyth planned all this. I got sent to a Vex underworld. What about you?"

"I ended up five hundred years in the past. Everything was green and overgrown. Got a weird note from Praedyth, fought some Vex and woke a giant robot monster. Jumped through a gate and came here."

"Huh," Linvana said, "You _did_ get a message?"

"Yeah," Dellander replied, "He said I was supposed to be some sort of bait. Considering the fact I riled up an overgrown minotaur, I might have succeeded. What did he want you for?"

Linvana shuffled uncomfortably. "He didn't say."

Dellander eyed the Titan. She was a terrible liar. When she clammed up though, it was something deeply personal or whatnot. Anyone who wasn't her girlfriend would have a hard time getting answers out of her. Whatever she wasn't telling him, he decided to ignore it for now.

"So what do we do now?"

"Praedyth said something about a Vex weapon at the top of the monolith. It might be worth looking into, but our first priority is to find Elva."

"Any idea where to start?" Dellander asked.

"We keep going," she replied, "We find our way out of this place, and make our way back to the base of the monolith. My Ghost is fairly certain we're back in our own time, and this -" She waved at the floating formations in the sky. "- is probably somewhere in the upper layers of the tower."

"I'm ready when you are."

Linvana nodded started walking. They passed the gate she came through and continued further into the maze. They didn't speak, but walking in the presence of a friend was reassuring. Hours and hours of endless glass and metal passageways passed underfoot.

"We're approaching another energy signature," Silla warned.

The two Guardians slowed. Linvana took point. She peered around the corner and motioned for Dellander to come up beside her.

Three Vex waited in the corridor, a minotaur and two harpies. Their backs were to a darkened gate.

The Guardians retreated back around the corner. Linvana raised her rifle.

"Ready to have some fun?"

Dellander drew his pistol. "I've had enough 'fun' with the Vex to last a lifetime."

The Titan chuckled. They charged around the corridor and attacked.

Linvana threw a grenade. It struck the floor between them and the Vex and burst into a wall of flames.

The Vex shrieked in alarm. One of the harpies charged them and flew through the flames. It was met with a hail of bullets from Linvana's auto-rifle. The harpy staggered and slowed. Dellander took aim and put a bullet through its eye. It exploded in a shower of sparks.

Linvana advanced down the corridor. The second harpy wheeled around and opened its armored fins. Fire bolts filled the corridor. Linvana grunted as several struck her armor.

The minotaur lobbed a blast of purple goo at Dellander. He jumped to the side, and the projectile melted a crater through the ground. He trained his pistol on the weapon it the Vex's hands.

His first shot pinged off the casing. The second scraped the exposed parts of the gun. The minotaur aimed to fire.

The gun exploded in a shower of purple sparks. The minotaur roared as bits of molten metal sprayed against its energy shield. The robot dropped the remains of the gun and charged.

It locked in on Linvana, the closer of the two, who was still trading fire with the second harpy.

"Hey!" Dellander shouted. He whipped out his knife and threw it at the minotaur. He started running as the blade bounced off its shoulder.

The minotaur turned to face him. Right as he got close to the minotaur, he threw himself into the air and sailed over its head.

Dellander had its full attention now. It barreled after him, shaking the ground. He fired the remaining rounds in his gun. All five bullets bounced harmlessly off the robot's shield.

He stopped and turned at the end of the corridor. The minotaur kept coming. He waited until the last second and dove between its legs. The minotaur growled when it realized Dellander had escaped again. He grinned. For time traveling space-robots, they sure weren't too bright.

The minotaur started to move again. Dellander summoned a grenade as he ran and jumped. He waited until he-

The minotaur teleported in a swirl of sparks and yanked him out of the air. He cried out in pain as his leg popped out of the socket.

He hit the ground with a thud. There was a crackle and an explosion behind him. The minotaur raised its arm, ready to mash his chest into red pulp.

A stream of red fire bolts crashed into the minotaur. It staggered as the plasma ripped away at its shield. The robot shrieked and started to retreat. It made it ten feet before the shield burst with a crack. Its metal body was reduced to a smoking pile of scrap a moment later.

Dellander turned to locate the source of the attack. A figure with olive green and yellow coat stepped away from the now glowing portal, a sleek gold and black rifle in her hands. Elva.

Linvana pulled herself from underneath the wreckage of the harpy. She dashed forward and hugged the Warlock. "Thank the Traveler," she whispered.

Elva disengaged after a moment. "Easy now," she said, "You wouldn't want Telysa getting any ideas."

Dellander rolled onto his side as Silla fixed up his leg. "Well I'll be damned. We thought we would have to do something heroic and dive into the Vex netherworlds to get you back."

"What happened?" Linvana asked, "Why did you go through the gate?"

"I…Praedyth spoke to me," Elva said.

"He spoke to all of us after we went through," Linvana said.

"I heard him before I stepped through the gate. I…it's complicated," Elva replied.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just need a minute."

"Right. We leave as soon as you're ready. We'll get out of this place and lock for transmat," Linvana said.

"No, not yet," Elva said quickly, "There's a weapon at the top. It will be completed soon if we don't stop it."

"How long do we have?"

"A day or two at most."

Linvana hesitated. "Change of plan then. We need to get to the top."

"There should be a gravity lift at the center," Elva said, "Most large Vex structures have one."

"Polaris, can you find a way to the center?" Linvana said.

"Yes. Doing it now," her Ghost responded.

"Where did you get that fancy new gun?" Dellander asked.

"This?" Elva said, raising the sleek rifle, "I found it in the future. A gift from myself of sorts. Praedyth called it the Vex's Mythoclast. Their myth-killer. And with any luck, we'll use it destroy one of their gods today."

* * *

After several hours of walking, Linvana called for a break. Neither of them argued. Dellander said he had already been in the maze for hours before she found him, and Elva looked…drained. They were in no shape to fight.

They slept for a few hours on the bare glass, under the glare of the swollen, oversized sun. When Polaris finally roused her, she felt…not refreshed, but alert. Her nerves buzzed with the familiar anticipation of imminent battle. It was a curious mix of anxiety and excitement.

Linvana was almost relieved when they finally reached the grav-lift. The device stood in a wide space attached to the corridor. It wasn't much, just a metal plate emanating a column of blue light. The wait was over. They would soon face what waited at the top.

Elva's Ghost deactivated the barrier surrounding the lift. Without a word, the three Guardians stepped into the light.

Linvana's stomach lurched as she fell upward. She gripped her Khvostov close to her chest. Formations of glass and metal flashed past.

A dark shape rushed down to meet them and they spilled onto a glass platform. They stumbled and took their bearings.

The terminal of the grav-lift overlooked a broad circular platform of glass and metal. Several stacks of glass blocks surrounded the platform, forming an elevated ring around it. The lift had deposited then on top of that ring. Several more formations floated nearby, connected to the rim by luminous filaments. Beyond the array was the distant planet surface. They were high enough to see the curvature of the horizon. Overhead, the bloated sun burned like a baleful eye.

"So where exactly is this weapon?" Linvana asked.

"Praedyth said that the entire top of the monolith is an array to collect and concentrate Solar energy," Elva said. She pointed to where one of the filaments connected the outer formations and the ring. There was a tangle of metal machinery mounted there. Several black strips ran down the inside of the rim to the center of the platform. There were similar devices scattered across the ring, four in total.

"It looks like those are the collection devices," Elva continued, "Destroying them will break the flow of Solar energy."

"So that's it then?" Dellander asked, "We just have to shoot up a few lumps of metal? Why does that sound too easy?"

"Because it is. The red Vex we saw below were part of a programing collective designed specifically to weaponize Solar. We need to draw out and destroy the axis mind that contains their blueprints, or else, they'll just rebuild this place once we leave."

"And how do we draw it out?" Linvana asked.

"Well…they probably won't take kindly to us wrecking their home," Elva said.

The three Guardians walked around the ring to the nearest collector. The machine stood about chest height. It quietly clicked and whirled away. Mounted in the middle was a canister filled with golden light.

"Knock knock," Elva sang. She pointed the Mythoclast at the collector and opened fire.

The stream of plasma bolts tore into the metal. The collector immediately began to spark and smoke. A moment later, the canister burst and released a cloud of luminous yellow mist.

All around them, the array came to life. Dark mist and static discharge thickened the air. Dozens, no hundreds of figures materialized around the rim and across the floor of the array. A small army of gleaming red Vex.

The clouds in the center of the array continued to grow, stretching higher and higher. A single towering figure condensed out of the mist.

It was the largest, most terrifying minotaur Linvana had ever seen.

Shells of dark metal covered its twisted body. Leaves and vines trailed from its broad shoulders, and a dozen lopsided eyes stared from its twisted face. Instead of a hand, one arm ended with a bristling canon. A flickering light burned in the center of its chest.

Behind her, Dellander cursed. "Really? It followed me 500 years into the future?"

"Praedyth said he needed you as bait," Elva said dryly. "It worked."

The colossus focused its myriad gaze on the Guardians and raised its arm.

"Get down!" Linvana shouted. Elva and Dellander dove behind the burnt out collector. She leapt forward, summoning her hammer with the vague intention of creating an overshield.

Her Light flared as the cloud of Solar energy around her surged. It expanded outward in a golden wave as the colossus fired. The red beam lanced across the array and struck with an almighty sound.

Linvana opened her eyes. She was still alive. How was she still alive? She should be vapor and dust. Dellander and Elva stood up, unharmed. _How?_

A golden sheet of Light stretched across the front of the collector. A barrier of pure Solar energy.

"Did I just do that?" Linvana muttered.

"You did," Elva said, "I saw it. You shaped the energy from the collector into a shield, like a Ward of Dawn!"

Across the space, the colossus growled. The sound was like metal tearing, and it shook the entire rim. The machine knelt down and pressed its cannon to the center of the array.

The glass and metal in the center began to shift and dance. The cannon split apart and sank into the floor, melding with the structure. Along the rim of the array, the filaments leading down the rim started glowing yellow. The energy leaked down the sides and across the floor, to where the colossus knelt. The flickering in its chest ettled in to a steady glow.

The Vex army opened fire. The air instantly became thick with plasma bolts and void blasts. Linvana's shield blocked most of the fire from below, but the machines to their left and right had open lines of sight. They dove behind the remains of the collector for cover.

"We need to stop it!" Elva shouted, "We can't let it finish the process it just started!"

"What happens if it does?" Linvana asked.

"I don't know, but Praedyth said it would be unstoppable."

Linvana glanced around the rim, at the three remaining collectors feeding Solar energy to the colossus.

"There's too many Vex to go at it directly," she said, "We'll take out the collectors, maybe that will weaken it or shock it."

"Right," Elva agreed.

"We'll go left around the rim. As soon as we move, we'll be exposed. I can handle the Vex in our path, but you'll need to watch our flanks. We start on my go."

"Okay," Dellander said.

Linvana reached over her shoulder and drew Raze-Lighter. The wavy serrations glinted in the sun.

"Polaris," she asked, "how much heavy matter do we have?"

"A fair amount," her Ghost replied, "But you know that thing burns through it fast."

"We'll make do. Go!"

She leapt over the ruined collector and charged the nearest Vex, a pair of hobgoblins twenty feet away. She lunged towards the one to the right and brought Raze-Lighter down in a broad overhand slash. Flames flared along the blade as she cleaved the Vex in half.

The other hobgoblin retreated and collapsed into stasis mode. She planted her foot on its chest and kicked it over the edge.

A plasma bolt seared her shoulder. She ignored the pain and jumped into the next group of Vex blocking their way. She heard the loud cracks of Dellander's hand-cannon and the strange cadence of Elva's Mythoclast behind her as she fought.

She cut down Vex after Vex, slicing open dozens of goblins and hobgoblins, impaling several harpies, and even cutting down a minotaur. Before she knew it, she had reached the second collector.

Raze-Lighter began to sputter as Linvana cleaned up the last few goblins. She sliced open a juice box, and the flames went out entirely.

"That's it," Polaris said, "Out of ammo."

Linvana lowered the sword and stepped to the edge of the rim. She drew on her Solar source, envisioning a barrier around her fireteam. Golden energy flowed off her body and hardened into a broad shield between her and the Vex bellow.

"So shields are your thing now?" Dellander asked as he and Elva fell in behind her. He fired his gun twice and dropped a pair of hobgoblins sniping from the outer formations on the array.

"I don't know" Linvana said, "but this won't hold for long." The barrier shook as a trio of hydras hammered it with their aeon mauls. It was already beginning to splinter around the edges.

"We don't have much time," Elva warned. She pointed towards the colossus. The core in its chest was much brighter now. The glow was even beginning to spread through the filaments along its body.

"When you destroyed the last collector, I somehow drew in the Solar energy it contained," Linvana said, "Try to do the same thing here. That will give us an edge."

Elva nodded and fired at the collector. The device exploded in a golden cloud of power.

Linvana sheathed Raze-Lighter across her back and reached out to the Solar Light. It burned all around them, a raging inferno just beyond her vision. The orange wisps were only the surface. She grasped the swirling currents and _pulled_.

The flames rushed into her body and filled her with searing heat. Her armor started leaking fire. It was too much for her. She was going to lose control and let it consume everything around her.

Wait, what was she thinking? They were surrounded by an army of Vex. She didn't need control. She needed wholesale destruction.

She growled and forced the Solar into her hands. It flooded through her and took the shape of the familiar hammer, and then continued grow. The handle lengthened, and the head grew heavier, more solid.

She gripped the handle with both hands and tested its weight. It cut through the air like a flaming meteor.

Further along the rim, the Vex surged, amsssing to stop them from reaching the third collector. That wouldn't happen.

With a shout, Linvana threw herself into their midst.

* * *

Elva felt the power fill her body. She could sense a reservoir behind the energy, but it was dissipating rapidly. It was vast, but it wasn't endless.

The conduits connecting the destroyed collector to the colossus went dark. Now only half of the array was still active. Hopefully the loss of power supply would by them more time. It needed to.

Beside her, Dellander ignited his gun. He fired three shots of starfire into the Vex advancing behind them. The goblins combusted, and his pistol continued to glow.

"Let's go," Elva said. She ran to catch up to Linvana, who was already smasshing a swath through the oncoming Vex. Dellander followed, using his Golden Gun to destroy the machines that came from behind.

A purple blast of energy screamed past Elva's face. She slid to a stop as more shots followed. Below, the hydra had its single eye locked on her. She hurled a glob of Solar Light at it.

The grenade stuck to its side and exploded. The hydra spun to the side as Elva peppered it with more grenades. It shrieked and dissolved in a swirl of particles.

It reappeared on the rim in front of Linvana.

"Look out!" Elva shouted too late. The flaming hydra slammed its tail into the ground. A shockwave blasted Linvana off her feet. The Titan tumbled and landed dangerously close to the edge of the rim.

Elva charged and threw more grenades at the hydra. The charges burst against its armored hide, but they weren't taking it down fast enough.

Dellander stepped up beside her and leveled his flaming pistol at the hydra. His shot tore out its eye. He continued firing into the exposed insides until it finally exploded in a burst of flaming metal.

Elva rushed to Linvana's side. The Titan lay on the ground, her helmet and chest plate cracked.

"I'm fine," she said as Elva grabbed her arm and helped her to her feet.

"Come on," Elva replied, "We're almost there."

The third collector was fifty feet ahead of them. Only a few goblins remained in the way. They mowed them down with their rifles.

Elva didn't even hesitate to open fire on the device. It gave way after a few moments and exploded in a shower of Solar energy. She breathed a sigh of relief as the warmth returned to her body, the flames forming ethereal wings on her back. A loud clang rang out as Linvana summoned her hammer.

"Something's happening," Dellander said quietly.

Elva looked up. All around them, the Vex had stopped shooting. They all faced to the colossus in the center of the array, which glowed like the sun. Flames licked along its hulking chasis, and as she watched, began to spread to the surrounding Vex. Their eyes bled from red to searing white. The black piping along their bodies lit up with yellow light. The empowerment slowly spread outward from the center.

The colossus slowly turned its eyes to face them. At once, the warmth inside Elva's body evaporated, yanked away towards its hungering maw. Beside her, Linvana's hammer vanished, and Dellander's gun went dark.

She could almost hear the colossus gloating in her mind. _You are too slow. Your fate is sealed._

"It's too late," she whispered, "They've taken control of the Solar energy. We can't stop them now."

Of course they were doomed to fail. How could they fight against the strength of a will the size of a planet?

"No," Linvana said, "It's never too late. Anything can be stopped. You just need a large enough force."

"It's still drawing from the last collector," Dellander said, pointing across the array, where power still flowed through the black conduits. "Only a few of the Vex are glowing. I think it still needs fire."

"He's right," Linvana said, "There's our chance." She clapped Elva on the shoulder, snapping her out of her daze. "The shortest pat is straight across."

Elva nodded, and they jumped over the edge of the rim.

They fell fast. She pushed a pulse of Light down just as she hit, enough to land without breaking her legs. They hit the ground running.

The Vex didn't react as they dashed past. Harpies, goblins and minotaurs alike continued to face the colossus, locked in some kind of rapture. Solar power slowly filled their bodies.

They ran in a path diagonal across the circular platform. The colossus turned to watch them and realized where they were going.

Elva felt a jolt of anger, followed by two words: _STOP THEM!_ Was she hearing the Vex's thoughts now?

In front of her, a goblin reached out and snagged Dellander. The Hunter went down in a tangle limbs. Smoke rose from where the goblin touched his cloak.

He rolled onto his back and blasted the goblin with his gun. It staggered as the bullets tore through its armor. The searing light in its eye flared, and the holes glowed and repaired.

"Keep going!" Dellander shouted as Elva passed him, "I'll hold them off, buy you some time!"

Elva didn't have time to argue. She just kept running as the Hunter scrambled to his feet fired at the Vex. The machines were coming back to life around them. An entire sea of glowing skeletal figures. The process was almost complete.

A minotaur lunged for her. She jumped to the side, causing it to just miss her leg and clip the tail of her coat. The fabric burst into flames.

Beside her, Linvana slowed and drew Raze-Lighter. She rammed the depleted blade through a goblin's chest. It righted itself and regenerated as soon as she yanked the sword out.

"GO!" Linvana yelled as she stopped and planted her feet wide apart. The army of Vex surged around her, an unstoppable force against a single Titan.

Elva didn't look back sounds of metal scraping on metal and shots from a hand-cannon filled the air. They would buy her time. That had to be enough.

The Vex in in front of her turned, their eyes glowing like miniature suns. Elva raised the Mythoclast and held down the trigger, loosing forth a torrent of particle bolts. She screamed as she ran, a wordless bellow of desperation and rage.

The sea of machines parted before her, limbs and bodies melted by Mythoclast's deadly torrent. They were already rising as she passed them though, regenerated by the Solar force. This army was unstoppable. It would be the end of everything.

Elva fired another volley from the Mythoclast, and then she was there, at the base of the rim, the Vex advancing behind her. She slowed only long enough to sling the Mythoclast over her shoulder and threw herself up the wall. She grabbed hold of a gap between the glass blocks and jumped again. Behind her, Dellander screamed. No time to think about him. She used what little Light she had left to carry herself higher.

A wave of cold panic raced through her mind as the colossus realized its minions had failed. Yes! It was afraid! That meant there was still a chance to stop it.

The colossus began disengaging from the array. The glass and metal shifted as its arm split from the ground. Elva hauled herself onto the rim. The collector hummed and clicked in front of her.

She raised her weapon and aimed, even as the colossus did the same. The beam tore through the glass the collector rested on. Elva fired, shattering the canister of Solar energy.

The collector wobbled as the base gave way. The stack of blocks slid over the edge and tumbled to the surface miles below.

She rose from the falling debris like a phoenix from the ashes. Massive wings formed on her shoulders as the power held in the collector surged through her body.

The colossus roared. It reached out to Elva and commanded her Light to come to it.

 _No!_ She was a Guardian, and the Solar Light belonged to her, not these monsters. She fashioned it into a burning point in front of her.

Elva hurled herself at the colossus. She struck like a dying star and drove her blade through its chest. The glowing heart shattered and Solar power gushed out.

Its scream was pitiful as the power sustaining it left its body. The body fell in slow motion. Elva clung to its chest as it struck the ground and crushed dozens of Vex beneath it. She stood up and withdrew her blade, now a fully formed sword of Light. All around her the glow vanished from the remaining Vex. The source of their power was shattered.

She soared into the air, her wings lifting her into the sky. Then she descended on the Vex surrounding Dellander's body and scattered them. Then she was beside Linvana, cleaving the minotaurs that stood over the broken Titan. What remained of the army cowered in fear before her. They were weak and helpless now, and they knew it.

Elva wove and danced between the machines, slashing and burning them with her sword. She worked her way across the array, until every single one of the Vex was destroyed. When she finished, she rested the tip of her sword on the ground and surveyed the remains of the slaughtered army.

She promptly passed out.


	7. Chapter 7

Dellander laid in a daze as Silla repaired his body. He felt bones shift and grate as they settled into their proper positions. Muscles twisted and mended. His skin tingled as the burnt patches peeled off and gave way to fresh new tissue underneath.

He twisted his head and saw Elva cut through swaths of Vex with a flaming sword. The giant wings on her back…she looked like an angel. An angel of fire and vengeance, and she was magnificent.

A sword. First Linvana with her hammers, and now Elva with a sword. What was the problem with an honest to god gun?

Silla finished the revive, and Dellander sat up. His body was a mix of old aches and fresh jittering. The usual post-res stuff. He pulled his gun out from the melted remains of a Vex and climbed to his feet.

His face felt hot. Why was it so hot? He stretched his neck and realized his helmet was missing. Must have come lose during the fight. At least the air was cool enough to breathe up here. Silla once told him the air on the surface was hot enough to set his lungs on fire.

On the far side of the array, Elva smote the last clump of Vex. She paused for a moment, admiring her handiwork, then keeled over like a dead fish.

Dead fish. Were the hell did that analogy come from? His brain wasn't running on all four wheels yet apparently.

Off to the side, Linvana staggered to her feet and ran to Elva. She knelt by the Warlock's side.

"She's just unconscious I think," she called back to him, "Though I never can tell with Exos." She saw that he didn't have his helmet on, so she took her own off.

Dellander stumbled over to the two of them. Something was definitely wrong with his left side. His leg was stiff and hard to use. He cracked his neck and felt something slide into place. Ah, that was better.

Elva was already waking up by the time he got there. Linvana had removed the Warlock's helmet, and her eyes fluttered as they flicked back on. She groaned and massaged her temples.

"What happened?" she asked.

"You killed them," Linvana said, "All of them."

Elva frowned. "Did I have a sword?"

"Yep," Dellander answered.

"Okay," Elva muttered, "Just peachy."

Dellander stood for a moment, then turned and started walking towards the body of the colossus.

"Where are going?" Linvana called after him, rising.

"You promised me treasure when you dragged me into this," Dellander said over his shoulder, "And since you destroyed all of these-" He waved his hand at the melted Vex corpses. "-I figure the big guy will have the best loot."

He stopped by the colossus's arm. The entire thing was one big cannon, with silver wires and bronze casings. He grabbed hold of a bundle of wires and yanked the out. They came lose with a satisfying crackle of electricity. He tucked those in his belt, and added a few strips of bronze for good measure.

He was about to head back to Elva and Lin when he saw a flash of light in the corner of his eye. The hole in the colossus's chest was glowing, pulsing slightly. That was the place the red orb had sat.

Dellander climbed onto the colossus's body and examined the cavity. The shattered remains of the orb lay at the bottom, covered in drippings of hardened slag. The glow was coming from underneath the broken shell pieces. He pushed aside the shards and came up holding a fist-sized chunk of crystal.

The stone was translucent orange, and it was wrapped in a cradle of thick wires. It pulsed once in his hand and went out completely.

"What is that?" Elva asked as she limped around the colossus's arm with Linvana's help.

"How would I know?" Dellander asked. He hopped down and proffered the strange crystal to Elva.

She took it and held it up for her Ghost to scan. "That's amazing," she muttered, "It has the same makeup as the stone Eris took from Oryx's sword. It must be how they channeled the Solar energy but…" She lowered the crystal and looked around. "Where does this stuff even come from?"

"That doesn't matter right now," Linvana said, "The weapon is destroyed. We need to contact Praedyth, see if taking it out worked."

Elva shook her head. "Praedyth won't be contacting us again. They've sealed the holes in his cell by now."

"Oh," Linvana said. For a moment, she looked visibly stricken. Then the look was gone, covered with her stoic captain face.

"This was their axis mind though," Elva continued, pointing at the colossus, "The architect of their efforts to harness the Solar force. With it destroyed, all their progress in that area is lost."

"So does that mean we're done here?" Linvana asked.

Elva nodded.

"Right then. Polaris, bring our ships down from orbit and lock for transmat. We're going home."

* * *

 _TYPE: GUARDIAN AFTER ACTION DEBRIEF [000183]_

 _AUTHOR: Elva Prime (Gensym Scribe)_

 _RECEPIANT: Ikora Rey (Warlock Vanguard)_

 _Praedyth's fate remains a mystery. It was indeed him reaching out to us, through a backdoor left by the Sunbreakers. I have no doubt now that he is alive, somehow, lost to the Vex. I don't know if it's even possible to rescue him at this point, but I recommend every effort be put into finding him. He quite likely saved the system and possibly the entire universe by alerting us to the danger in the monolith._

 _The weapon itself is cause for great alarm. Discovering a new programing collective was no surprise, but discovering one on the verge of harnessing the Solar force is frightening, to say the least. Hopefully, with the Incendiary Mind destroyed, they will cease to be a threat. We were foolish to think the Vault of Glass was a definitive victory. As our encounter shows, the Vex have other paths to achieving dominance. We can only assume there are corresponding collectives tasked with harnessing the Arc and Void. Finding them and destroying them is imperative._

 _The crystal retrieved from the construct is proving to be quite an intriguing find. I only subjected it to the most cursory of examinations on the journey back to the Tower, and I've found it is attuned to Solar power and is drawing power from multiple dimensions at once. With time, I think it might be possible to harness it as a weapon of great power. I will keep you apprised of my progress._

 _Finally, I wish to include a more personal note with this memo. I am postponing my upcoming expedition to Venus in favor of studying with the Praxic order. The Vex are a fascinating enigma, but I have devoted too much of my time to their study, and not enough time to my own abilities. My experiences in the monolith reminded me that we have only scratched the surface of the Light's potential. I believe the Praxic Order will be an excellent fit. Their recent innovations in the use of Rifts is intriguing._

 _END OF REPORT_

Elva paused, her finger hovering over the send button. There was nothing in the memo about what Praedyth had told her. She kept insisting there was no reason to believe him. No reason to believe a word he said. No reason to believe she was a Vex.

Yet there was a little voice in the back of her head that kept saying it was true. She could have sworn she heard the colossus, the machine she called the Incendiary Mind, speak to her during the battle. How could she explain that?

She stared at her hand, a hand made of servos and wires, sheathed in thin bronze skin. The Vex had bronze skin too.

She needed answers. Guardian or machine, she needed to know who she was. She needed to master her Light, but she needed to be sure she wasn't a pawn of the Vex.

But who would give her answers? Praedyth was still lost.

 _Find Osiris. He can set you on the right path_.

Osiris. A Warlock whose legendary disgrace rivaled his greatest accomplishments. A man who had vanished from the City, leaving countless whispers and rumors behind. Maybe _he_ could give her answers. Only once she knew more could she tell anyone else. Today then, she would rest, and tomorrow, she would go to Vesta and speak to his disciple.

She pressed send on the report and began preparing for the new day.

* * *

Dellander entered the Tower hangar with a purpose. He followed the walkway along the side of the cavernous space. It was filled with the usual hubbub of activity. Guardians, frames, civilians, all puttering along with their happy little lives like everything was going to be just amazing. An 'Age of Triumph' the Speaker called it. Hah. The masked fool had no idea.

He reached the corner of the hangar and turned towards the stairs in the back. Jalaal was watching him, following him with those beady eyes. That man was a coward. He thought running was the answer. All that would do is draw it out and make them suffer. They couldn't escape what was coming. Others had tried, and now they were dead or dying. You only had to look at what was left of the Fallen. Dellander understood it now.

He nodded to Miss Holiday, who was talking to some baby-faced Warlock about his ship. He continued past them, up the second flight of stairs, to the skybox nestled in the very upper corner of the hangar. The den of the Future War Cult.

"Well Hunter, this is certainly a surprise." Lakshmi sat on a cushioned stool near the window, watching the comings and goings of the Tower. The other cultists retreated to the sides as he approached.

"Tell me Hunter, have you come to ridicule me again?" she spat without looking at him, "Because it would be very disappointing if you have. I would hate for you to leave with a damaged face again."

Dellander bit his lip and very consciously lowered his hand from his pistol. Seeing her reminded him how much she pissed him off, but desperate times called for desperate measures. There were events unfolding that were bigger than either of them.

"I'm not here to argue," he said quietly, "I'm here to apologize."

Lakshmi's eyes snapped up. "Oh?"

"Let me make this clear. I don't like you Lakshmi. I never have, and I never will."

She opened her mouth to shoot back some witty retort, but he kept going before she could speak.

"That doesn't matter though. Our personal differences are just that. Personal. The reason I refused your invitation was because I thought you were all crazy, spouting nonsense about the future and infinite timelines."

"I fail to see the point of this conversation then," Lakshmi said, standing up. She raised her hand to summon the guards.

"What if I told you I believed you though," Dellander blurted, "What if I told you I've seen the future, and saw that you're right?"

Lakshmi narrowed her eyes and lowered her hand. "And how would one such as yourself see the future? Did you have a vision when you died, like a thanatonaut?"

"No. I went to Mercury. I stepped into a Vex gate and traveled to the past. I touched their network, and I saw it. All of it. Infinite futures stretched out before me like threads on a loom. And every single one of them ended in fighting. An infinite coming war with no escape."

The Exo cocked her head. "You touched the machines' networks, and your mind escaped intact? What else did you see there? What secrets do they hold?"

"I'll gladly tell you _all_ about it," Dellander said, "I'm here because I want to join the Future War Cult."

* * *

Linvana spent the morning looking for Telysa.

First she stopped by the Hunter's quarters. They were empty. Then she checked the practice range. There was an old Titan trying to show a blueberry how to use a sniper rifle, but no Telysa. She went to the upper Tower concourse next. The ramen shop that Hunters loved so much was practically deserted. She wasn't in the smelly old ship back in the hangar that everyone called a lounge either.

Linvana checked the hangar manifest before leaving. Telysa's jumpship was still in maintenance, so she had to be somewhere in the City. She ran back to Tower North to pick up her special order from Eva before continuing.

She finally found the Hunter in the courtyard down on the wall. She was sitting at a small stone table tucked behind a row of bushes in the back. Monte Carlo rested on the table beside her as she worked on the magazine, etching a flowing pattern with a small chisel.

Linvana watched her for a moment. The way her silky blue hair framed her pale lavender face and glowing azure eyes was just…perfect, in every way. The way she sat was effortlessly poised, so calm and relaxed, a stark contrast to her usual guarded self. She was everything Linvana could ever want.

Telysa looked up as Linvana approached. "Hey, you're back. Zavala mentioned you were on an emergency -"

"Yes," Linvana said.

"Huh?" Telysa replied.

"Yes, I'll do it. I'll move in with you. If you still want me to."

Telysa frowned. "Of course I do. Why wouldn't I? I love you Lin."

Linvana released the breath she had been holding. She sat down across from Telysa. "I'm sorry I took so long to give you an answer. I needed to figure out some things about myself…about us."

"What sort of things?" Telysa asked, "Linvana, if there's something going on, you need to tell me."

"I know," Linvana said, "And I'm sorry I didn't. That's my fault, and I promise I'll never do it again. I love you and I want to be with you, it's just…"

Telysa noticed Linvana's discomfort. She set down her tools and wrapped her hand's around Linvana's.

"Tell me," she insisted, "Please."

Linvana smiled weakly. "It's just that, well, I've been thinking a lot lately."

"Well that's a surprise," Telysa interjected. Linvana glared daggers into the Hunter. Telysa snickered. "Sorry, go on."

Linvana shook her head and smiled. This time, it was genuine. "I've been thinking about who I am, and what my life is supposed to be.

"Everyone says we're heroes, defenders of humanity and the Last Safe City. I don't remember _anything_ about who I was before I came back. To me, that means I've spent my whole life fighting evil monsters and destroying alien armies and just killing, nonstop. For a while, I thought all I would ever experience was death. Dying and killing and dying again. And then, two years ago, I met you. I fell in love with you the moment I saw you, getting your ass kicked by a single vandal."

"I had it handled," Telysa muttered.

"It was about to run you through!"

"So? I'm a Hunter. I'm sure I would have come up with some sort of backup plan."

Linvana burst out laughing. "You would have been dead within a half a second."

"And the vandal would have been dead in a quarter. Simple as that."

She smiled again and squeezed Telysa's hand. "This is what I'm talking about," she said, "You make me happy, you make me laugh. Being with you was the first time I felt anything beyond the thrill of battle and…the remorse of killing. Polaris brought me back to life, but you gave me something to live for. And I didn't say yes because I was afraid I would lose you."

"What do you mean?" Telysa asked, "I would never dream of leaving you."

"Of course not," Linvana said, "I would never dream of leaving you either. But, we're warriors Telysa. From the moment we hit the ground, we're fighting battles and killing enemies. Yeah, we can come back from the dead, but sooner or later, one of us is going to go down and not get back up. Part of me was afraid of committing, of saying yes, because I knew I could lose you tomorrow, or worse, you could lose me.

"When I was on Mercury, without you, I realized it would be even worse if I died there, alone, instead of by your side. So I decided that even if one of us dies tomorrow and today is our last day, I would give anything to spend today with you. And so…"

Linvana reached into her pocket and pulled out the special package from Eva. She knelt down on the flagstones in front of Telysa and raised the plain silver ring in her hand.

"Telysa Elaine, will you-"

Telysa tackled Linvana to the ground and kissed her. Linvana's breath caught as she melted into her warm embrace.

"Yes you idiot," Telysa said, "Of course I will. I've been waiting for you to ask for months." She took the ring from Linvana and slid it on her finger. Linvana grinned and kissed her again.

Telysa finally pulled away and dragged Linvana to her feet. She bundled up her tools, threw Monte Carlo over her shoulder, and took Linvana's hand.

"Come on," she said, towing the Titan towards the garden entrance, "Let's go get married."

"What, today? Half the team's still on patrol!"

"Oh they'll survive if they miss it. Let's go."

* * *

Linvana stood on the long balcony overlooking the north end of the Tower plaza. The cool evening breeze gently ruffled her hair. Behind her, the setting sun painted the Tower and the Traveler with golden light.

She wore her simple ceremonial uniform, a dark blue doublet tunic with matching trousers, and her Sunbreaker's mark belted on her waist. Zavala, Elva, Dellander, and Eva Levante stood to the side, leaving an aisle for Telysa to walk down when she arrived. She had already noticed the FWC patch on Dellander's shoulder. That was unexpected, though she tried not to dwell on her worries. She would discuss it tomorrow. Today was a day for celebration.

"Thank you for doing this on such short notice sir," she said to Zavala. Mostly because she needed a conversation to distract her from her nerves. She had fought down hordes of monsters, yet right now, she was more terrified than she had ever been in her short life.

The Titan Vanguard gave her an appraising glance. He smiled broadly and rested his hand on her shoulder. Devil's shadows! Was her anxiety really that obvious?

"Officiating the wedding of the greatest Titan the City has ever seen," he said quietly, "It's my pleasure, Captain."

Linvana blushed at the praise. "Thank you sir."

"You'll have to give me some time to finish your wedding gift though," Zavala said.

"Take your time sir."

Zavala nodded and lowered his hand. He turned away from Linvana, gazing out at the City and the Traveler beyond. His expression took a distant cast, like his mind was somewhere else.

Oh Traveler. This was really happening. She was going to marry Telysa. They had been together for nearly two years now, yes, but this, this was something different.

Stop it! It was her idea to get married in the first place. She _would_ see this through, even if-

Telysa appeared at the top of the stairs, and she was _beautiful_.

She wore a sleek, deep red sleeveless dress. The silky material clung to her figure and shimmered in the red sunlight. She wore her sky blue cloak fastened over her shoulders, and had her dark blue hair pulled up in a simple twist. Her pale lavender skin seemed almost luminescent in the sunset.

Right at that moment, all of Linvana's anxiety melted away, replaced with a warm fuzzy feeling as her heart melted into a puddle on the floor.

Telysa strode gracefully towards Linvana, with the firm delicacy only a Hunter could project. Halfway there, her stoic composure broke, and her face split into a broad smile. Linvana grinned back.

She stopped in front of Linvana and took both her hands. Linvana just stared into her eyes, heedless of the stupid, sappy expression plastered on her face.

"Are we ready to begin?" Zavala asked.

"Yes," they said at the same time.

"Very well," Zavala replied, "Guardians and friends, we are here this evening to celebrate the union of Linvana and Telysa, two courageous warriors who have fought countless battles to keep our walls and our people safe. Life in these times is never easy, and that is especially true for Guardians such as yourselves. That you found greater Light in each other is nothing short of extraordinary. You are examples to all Guardians, of what we should strive to be.

"Do you, Linvana, captain of Fireteam Dawnstar, keeper of the Hammer of Sol, take Telysa to be your bride, for better or for worse, in the Tower or on patrol, for as long as you both have Light?"

"I do," Linvana said.

"And do you, Telysa, Bladedancer adept, Bane of Khariss the Forsaken, take Linvana to be your bride, for better or for worse, in the Tower or on patrol, for as long as you both have Light?"

"I do," Telysa said.

"Then by the power vested in me Consensus of the City, I thus pronounce you married. You may kiss."

Linvana embraced Telysa, and kissed her wife as the last sliver of sun slipped behind the horizon.


End file.
